Fans of Leyton Orient Women

Women's football pyramid - England
2025/26

Tier

League

Status

All-England national competition

1

FA Women's Super League 1

Full-time
Professional

2

FA Women's Super League 2

Full-time
Professional

3

2 regional leagues (North & South)

Largest regions
Mix of amateur and semi pro.

4

4 major regional leagues

Large regions
Mix of amateur and semi pro.

FA Women's National leagues (FAWNL) *All amateur

5

8 sub-regional leagues

Mid-sized regions
Strictly amateur

6

17 sub-sub-regional leagues

Smaller regions
Strictly amateur

FA County level leagues

7

County leagues
*This is us for 2025/26*

County/district
Top level (Grass roots)

8

County leagues

County/district
Level 2 (Grass roots)

9

County leagues

County/district
Level 3 (Grass roots)

Explanation...

Women's Super league (WSL-1) can be regarded as the women's version of the Premiership. Women's Super league - 2 (WSL-2) has much the same role as the men's Championship. FAWNL - The FA's Women's National League does not have "national" leagues. The organisation is national but the leagues (Tiers 3 to 6) are all regional. FAWNL is regarded as the mainstream for women's football. Below the full-time professionals but above the 'park football' hierarchy. The FAWNL has 4 levels and can be thought of as similar to the EFL except all the FAWNL leagues are regional. The highest level of FAWNL has only two regions, North and South. The lower the level within FAWNL, the smaller and more numerous the geographical leagues become. The County level leagues are similar to the men's National League but are all locally based. Everyone wants to get up into the FAWNL levels. The entire pyramid is subject to promotion and relegation, normally with one team up and one team down but there are variations. Below the County leagues are countless local leagues serving the entire country, they do not always have direct access to the county leagues by way of automatic promotion. Supporting and feeding into the women's pyramid is the Junior Premier League (JPL). The JPL is a set of competitive nationally organised leagues for youth/kid's teams with age limits. Under 12's, under 16's etc. The JPL is for youth development and seeks to attract and develop the most able and committed youngsters into women's football. Leyton Orient currently (2025/26) have teams in the County league (Tier 7) as well as u16s and u18s in the JPL.