A total of three fixtures have been selected for broadcast over the weekend of March 30 and 31, but are subject to Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal’s potential involvement in the Continental Tyres League Cup Final.

The trio of televised games starts with Sky Sports’ coverage of Liverpool against Manchester City on Saturday 30 March, kicking off at 12.30pm at Prenton Park.

This will be followed up by a Sunday double header – firstly Tottenham Hotspur’s home clash with Chelsea at Brisbane Road, live on the BBC with a 12.15pm KO, and then Arsenal’s clash against Bristol City at Meadow Park, kicking off at 6.45pm on Sky Sports.

Remaining Barclays Women’s Super League matches for the same weekend will be streamed on The FA Player.

Fans overseas should check their local listings for broadcast details, while countries without a broadcast deal will see all matches available on The FA Player.

One fixture in the Barclays Women’s Championship have also been selected for broadcast on the FA Player, with Charlton hosting Birmingham City at The Valley on Sunday 31 March, KO 1pm.

• Full fixtures and results of the women’s professional leagues can be found here.

Barclays Women’s Super League broadcast picks

Barclays Women’s Championship broadcast picks 

With thanks to the FA

Following this summer’s Olympic Games, the top flight of women’s football in England will start across the weekend of September 21 and 22, 2024, and finish over May 10 and 11, 2025.

The Barclays Women’s Championship meanwhile will begin a fortnight earlier across September 7 and 8, 2024, concluding over May 3 and 4, 2025.

The winter break will also run from December 16 through to January 18 for both divisions.

The Women’s League Cup group stages will begin in early October and run until mid-December, with the quarter finals scheduled for January 22 and 23, semi-finals across February 5 and 6, and the final due to be contested on the weekend of March 15 and 16.

Details for the Adobe Women’s FA Cup will be confirmed in due course.

Please note that all fixture dates are subject to change.

With thanks to the FA

A total of three fixtures have been selected for broadcast over the second match weekend of February.

First up, Chelsea will play Manchester City at Kingsmeadow on Friday 16 February, kicking off at 7.15pm in front of the BBC cameras.

Arsenal will then host Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday 17 February, kicking off at 12:30pm before Brighton & Hove Albion welcome Liverpool to the Broadfield Stadium on Sunday 18 February for a 12 noon kick-off, with both games broadcast live on Sky Sports.

Remaining Barclays Women’s Super League matches for the same weekends will be streamed on The FA Player.

Fans overseas should check their local listings for broadcast details. Countries without a broadcast deal will see all matches available on The FA Player.

In the Barclays Women’s Championship meanwhile, Sheffield United’s home fixture against Watford will be broadcast live on the FA Player on Sunday 18 February, 2pm kick-off at Bramall Lane.

Barclays Women’s Super League broadcast picks

Barclays Women’s Championship broadcast picks

With no top flight men’s football taking place during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, fans have flocked to fixtures across the Barclays Women’s Championship, with a number of clubs holding their matches in their men’s stadium.

Sheffield United, who hosted new league leaders London City Lionesses at Bramall Lane, smashed the previous Barclays Women’s Championship attendance record, with an attendance of 11,137 – almost doubling that of the impressive number set by Bristol City last season (5,752).

With matches held at Blackburn’s Ewood Park, Bristol City’s Ashton Gate, and a club record attendance for Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park of 1,969, the total attendance across the Barclays Women’s Championship was 17,500 – a record weekend for the competition.

Kelly Simmons, The FA’s Director for the Women’s Professional Game, said: “I’m really encouraged to see the records broken in the Barclays Women’s Championship, and congratulations to Sheffield United on breaking the individual attendance record for the league.

“It’s such an exciting and tightly contested league, and there is so much quality on show within the division. The Barclays Women’s Championship continues to go from strength to strength and I am really pleased that we are seeing such healthy attendances, that are considerably up on last season.”

With thanks to the FA

The rebrand will also see the naming convention altered for the two competitions, with ‘The FA’ dropped from the title of both the Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship. This represents the long term strategy for the leagues to be under new ownership in the future, with this process ongoing.

The 2021/22 campaign saw unprecedented interest in the women’s professional game, with Sky Sports and the BBC driving visibility in the first season of the new broadcast deal announced last year, while commercial interest continues to grow – highlighted by Barclays renewing their sponsorship of the Women’s Super League and becoming the new title partner of the Women’s Championship from next season.

The sponsorship of the Women’s Championship for the first time and renewed commitment to the Women’s Super League last year sees the organisation’s cyan colour added to the refreshed brand to better align the two competitions.

The refreshed branding will be activated immediately, with all assets associated with the two leagues being updated and available to download from today.

Kelly Simmons, the FA’s Director of the Women’s Professional Game, said: “We’ve seen tremendous strides made in the women’s professional game since it turned professional four years ago, which meant we needed a refreshed branding that reflected that progress.”

The IWC has been expanded to 10 teams from eight as part of ICC’s commitment to accelerate the growth of the women’s game and will see Bangladesh and Ireland make their debuts in the competition, which provides a direct qualification pathway to the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2025.

The 10 teams will play eight three-match series each during the 2022-25 cycle comprising four home series and four away series which have been mutually agreed by the participating teams, providing a regular calendar of top-quality competitive cricket for fans around the world to enjoy in between ICC events.

The hosts plus the five top placed teams, will get direct entry to the Cricket World Cup. The remaining two teams will be identified through a global qualifier comprising six teams – the remaining four teams from the IWC plus two others who will be selected according to the MRF Tyres ICC Women’s ODI Team Rankings.

ODI status for teams

Five Associate women’s teams, Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and the USA have also been given ODI status with immediate effect as part of the revamped Cricket World Cup qualification pathway which is now distinct from the T20 World Cup qualification pathway. The ODI performances of these teams will determine their ODI rankings and count towards qualification for the 2025 Cricket World Cup.

ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said these decisions had been made by the ICC Board in line with the ICC global growth strategy:  “Increasing the number of teams in the ICC Women’s Championship and awarding ODI status to five additional teams will help us to accelerate the growth of the women’s game. More teams playing more regularly creates a more competitive environment as we saw at the recent ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup in New Zealand.

“The context that the IWC brings is so important and ensures fans around the world can enjoy meaningful and competitive cricket throughout the year. I wish all the teams in the ICC Women’s Championship the very best in this next edition and good luck to Netherlands, PNG, Scotland, Thailand and the USA on what I hope will be a great opportunity to develop in 50 over cricket in their countries.”

Meg Lanning, who led Australia to victories in the previous two editions of the ICC Women’s Championship, welcomed Bangladesh and Ireland to the competition.

Australia captain Meg Lanning said: “The third edition of the Championship is going to be exciting. As we saw at the most recent ODI World Cup, there are a number of nations really starting to emerge so we’re going to have to be at the top of our game. We pride ourselves on finding ways to keep evolving and it’ll be more important than ever over the next period.

“To have Bangladesh and Ireland involved, will not only be great for us to have the chance to play more cricket against them, but also to expose them to more cricket against the top nations. We want to see the women’s game as strong as possible and developing the next tier of nations is a big part of that.”

England captain Heather Knight, who led her team to second position in both previous editions, hopes the IWC will continue to grow in the coming years.

England captain Heather Knight: “We’re really excited about the new cycle of the ICC Women’s Championship. Playing everyone, home and away, in meaningful fixtures provides an excellent structure to the women’s international game and it’s great to get back to our normal schedule after COVID-19. Our objective will be to win as many games as possible and to be in the best place that we can be going into the ICC Women’s World Cup 2025.

“In addition, we want to see the women’s game in England and Wales, and the women’s game internationally, continue its journey of growth across that period. We want to win on the pitch and continue to see progression off the pitch.

“The ICC Women’s Championship is vital for women’s cricket and the decision to increase it to 10 teams is the right one. Hopefully, in the future, we’ll see the championship continue to grow.”

The complete matchups of the 2022-25 championship are available here.

With thanks to the ICC

Today The Football Association has announced the winners of the 2019/20 FA Women’s Championship End of Season Awards, with champions Aston Villa and runners-up Sheffield United claiming the four trophies on offer.

Blades striker Katie Wilkinson claimed an impressive double after being voted the league’s Player of the Season following her 15 league goals in 14 matches during the campaign, which was also enough to see her finish top scorer and claim the FA Women’s Championship Golden Boot.

Aston Villa head coach Gemma Davies, who led her unbeaten side to the Championship title and promotion to the Barclays FA Women’s Super League, was announced as Manager of the Season by the League Managers’ Association (LMA) as she prepares to lead the club into its first season in top flight professional football.

One area key to Villa’s success was their ability to keep things tight in defence and a confident shot stopper behind them. Thanks to her five clean sheets in 13 appearances, keeper Sian Rogers was awarded the FA Women’s Championship Golden Glove.

The 2020/21 FA Women’s Championship season is due to commence on the weekend of September 5-6, with fixtures to be announced in due course.

The FA Women’s Championship Award winners

Player of the Season – Katie Wilkinson (Sheffield United)
Manager of the Season – Gemma Davies (Aston Villa)
Golden Boot – Katie Wilkinson (Sheffield United)
Golden Glove – Sian Rogers (Aston Villa)

Lead photo shows Katie Wilkinson when she played for London Bees

Manchester City v Manchester United
Manchester United manager Casey Stoney faced Manchester City five times as a player in the Women’s Super League, only managing one victory in those games, appearing and scoring in a 4-0 victory for Arsenal in August 2014.
Manchester United romped home to the Women’s Championship title in what was their debut season – picking up 55 points from a possible 60, scoring 98 goals whilst only conceding seven.
Manchester City remained unbeaten at home during the 2018-19 season, the only side not to lose on home soil in the competition last season. The Citizens won seven and drew three of their 10 such matches.
During the 2018-19 Super League campaign, only Chelsea (427) had more shots than Man City (392), while only Arsenal (19%) recorded a higher shot conversion rate than the Citizens in the competition last season (13.5%).

Bristol City v Brighton & Hove Albion
This will be just the third Super League meeting between Bristol City and Brighton, with the Vixens remaining unbeaten during their two encounters in the competition last season (W1 D1).
Brighton also faced Bristol City on the opening weekend of the 2018-19 Super League campaign, with Hope Powell’s side starting their inaugural campaign in the competition with a 0-1 defeat at home.
Bristol City have lost five of their previous eight matches in the WSL on the opening day (W3), with their 0-6 defeat to Chelsea back in 2017-18 the highest loss suffered by a side on matchday one in the competition’s history.
Brighton & Hove Albion suffered 12 defeats in the Super League last season; only relegated Yeovil Town (17) and Everton (14) lost more games in the competition in 2018-19.
Only in 2013-14 (10) did Bristol City win more Super League matches in a single campaign then the seven they won last season.

Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur
Chelsea will face Tottenham in a Women’s Super League match for the very first time following Spurs’ promotion in 2018-19. Indeed, Spurs will become Chelsea’s 14th different opponent in the competition, who have beaten each of the 13 other sides they’ve faced at least once.
These two sides did meet in the FA Women’s League Cup last season, with Spurs falling to a 0-5 defeat at home, with goals from Deanna Cooper, Alexandra Riley, Karen Carney and Bethany England (two) securing the victory for Chelsea.
Prior to the 2019-20 campaign, none of the last four sides playing in their first ever Women’s Super League match have managed to win (D1 L3), with Sunderland the last team to do so back in March 2015 versus Liverpool.
Chelsea have won each of their last nine Super League matches against newly promoted opposition by an aggregate score of 34-3. Indeed, the Blues have only ever lost one such match in the competition, a 0-4 defeat to Sunderland in July 2015.
Only current Super League Champions Arsenal (13) conceded a fewer number of goals in the competition last season than Chelsea (14).

Birmingham City v Everton
Birmingham have won each of their last four Women’s Super League games against Everton – their longest current winning streak against any of the current WSL sides.
Since winning on their first two top-flight trips to Birmingham in the WSL, Everton have remained winless in their last four such games in the competition (D1 L3), falling to a 0-1 defeat at the SportNation.bet Stadium.
Birmingham City also hosted Everton on the opening weekend of the WSL last season, when Charlie Wellings scored after 44 seconds to secure a 1-0 victory for the home side.
Everton have never won their first WSL match of the season in any of their previous six campaigns in the competition, drawing two and losing four of those games.
Charlie Wellings’ winner after 44 seconds in this exact fixture last season was Birmingham’s quickest goal in the WSL in 2018-19; indeed, only Olivia Fergusson’s goal for Yeovil against Manchester City was scored earlier in a match in the competition last season (19 seconds).

Liverpool v Reading
Liverpool are winless in their last four Super League matches against Reading (D1 L3), this after winning each of their first three such encounters with the Royals between July 2016 and April 2017.
Reading have won on each of their last two visits to Liverpool in the WSL without conceding a goal, scoring three without reply in September 2017 and taking all three points in a 1-0 victory in September 2018 in this exact fixture last season.
Liverpool are kicking off their Super League campaign at home for the first time since the 2016 season, when they beat Birmingham City 1-0 thanks to Shanice Van De Sanden’s first ever goal in English football.
Reading have alternated between a defeat and a victory in their four previous opening matches of a Super League season (W2 L2), running out 4-0 winners at home to Yeovil to kick off their campaign last season.
Liverpool managed just seven wins from their 20 Super League games in 2018-19, last winning fewer in a single season in the competition back in 2015-16 (four).

Arsenal v West Ham United
Arsenal completed the Women’s Super League double over West Ham last season, winning 4-2 away from home whilst running out 4-3 winners in this exact fixture last season.
West Ham failed to win any of their four London derbies in the Super League last season, losing twice versus Arsenal whilst losing one and drawing one against Chelsea.
Arsenal have only lost one of their previous nine opening matches in the Women’s Super League (P9 W5 D3 L1), a 0-4 thrashing by Liverpool back at the beginning of the 2013 campaign.
West Ham, who are competing in just their second ever WSL campaign, kicked off their inaugural season with a 0-0 draw with Reading in 2018-19, before travelling to Arsenal in their first ever away game in the competition, losing 3-4.
In Arsenal’s 4-3 win over West Ham in this exact fixture last season, Arsenal’s Daniëlle van de Donk was directly involved in each of her side’s four goals, scoring a hat-trick and also registering an assist.

This weekend’s fixtures:

Barclays FA Women’s Super League

Saturday 7 September KO 3pm

Manchester City v Manchester United

Bristol City v Brighton & Hove Albion

Sunday 8 September 

KO 12.30 

Chelsea v Tottenham Hotspur

KO 2.30pm

Liverpool v Reading

Birmingham City v Everton

Arsenal v West Ham

Sunday 8 September

KO 12.00 

Aston Villa v Blackburn Rovers Ladies

Durham v Charlton Athletic

KO 2pm

Lewes v Crystal Palace

London Bees v Coventry United

London City Lionesses v Leicester

The exciting young midfielder becomes the Wildcats’ first summer signing as they prepare for the new campaign in the FA Women’s Championship.

18-year-old Bell is considered one of the most exciting prospects to have been developed in her homeland in recent years, and progressed through the Northern Ireland youth sides before making her mark on the senior squad.

Domestically, Bell was part of a Linfield side who were unbeaten before her departure – putting in a number of impressive performances in an advanced midfield role.

And the midfielder is now excited to test herself in the English second tier having put pen to paper on a deal with the Wildcats – which will also see her study for an undergraduate degree at Durham University.

Speaking after sealing the deal, Bell said: “It’s been really good so far.

“I feel settled already and I can’t wait to get pre-season started and be ready to go.

“International football has obviously helped me a lot as a player and hopefully I can bring what I’ve learnt there and make an impact at Durham.”

Having sealed the signature the highly-regarded youngster, manager Lee Sanders was delighted to unveil his new signing.

“I think she’s a very exciting young talent,” he said.

“She’s getting a fantastic opportunity to come to the club, but also mix her football with her education in terms of a scholarship at Durham University as an undergraduate – which is the first time we’ve gone into the undergraduate side of things, as we’ve predominantly looked at post-graduate scholarships in the past.

“She’s been the captain of Northern Ireland under-19s and a member of the senior squad for a while now too, so she’s got experience on that front.

“She still has a lot to learn and in terms of the league it’ll be a completely different animal to what she’s been used to, but from everything that we’ve seen I think she’ll adapt to it well.

“She’s a really exciting player and we’re delighted she’s joined us.”

Courtesy of Durham WFC

Thatto’s Rachel Thompson topped the try scoring charts for the afternoon with four, closely followed by Faye Gaskin who scored three. Charlotte Hill scored twice and there were further tries from Tara Stanley, Alex Simpson, Tara Jones and Roxy Mura. Tara Stanley added four goals and Faye Gaskin added two. Castleford’s Katie Hepworth added their score.

In the Women’s Championship Oulton Raidettes were at home to Barrow Ladies and Oulton enjoyed a fantastic afternoon winning 66-0. Reagan Walker and Dan Anderson both scored a hat-rick each, with Vanessa Harriman scoring twice. Amie Backhouse, Frankie Townend, Megan Beech and Emily Longbottom all scored one each and Reagan Walker further added to her points tally with nine goals.

Batley Bulldogs welcomed Wakefield Trinity Ladies and away side had the edge, winning 28-8.  Try scorers for Batley were: Casey Rhodes and Ellie Oldroyd  and for Wakefield Trinity, Yasmin Copeland (2), Michala Reith (2), Nicola Austin-Dyson, Kelly Marie Hall
Goals: Nicola Austin Dyson (2)

Wigan St Patricks faced off against Leigh Miners Rangers at home and there was another home win 30-16. Wigan’s Holly Speakman scored twice, with further tries for Becky Greenfield, Megan Woodcock, Jess Hopkins and Emily Valentine. Leigh Miners Kelsey Armistead scored one try and Charlotte Foley added the goals.

By Rebecca Bird

Sunday 20th August

Womens Super League

Featherstone Rovers Ladies P  Bradford Bulls Women P

Thatto Heath St Helens 64  Castleford Tigers Ladies 4

Women’s Championship

Batley Bulldogs 8  Wakefield Trinity Ladies 28

Oulton Raidettes 66  Barrow Ladies 0

Wigan St Patricks Ladies 30  Leigh Miners Rangers 16

No games next week as it is a Bank Holiday.