For 2026/27, I’ll be expanding the content available to subscribers on the website, with emails grouped by subject.
You can update your preferences at any time, so if you’re not interested in the Scotland national team, English football, Women’s Premier League or other specific content, simply deselect those topics.
Go to ScottishFootball.info, click your profile picture in the top right, then Manage Subscription. From there, you can choose which subjects you want to receive by email.
The following SWPL Stats Packs will be created and posted weekly for the top two tiers of women’s football, as I do for the men’s SPFL leagues. If you are interested in becoming a guest writer for the website covering the women’s game, then please get in touch by message or email: scotlandscoefficient@gmail.com
SWPL Stats Pack
SWPL2 Stats Pack
The League System
Scotland’s senior women’s pyramid has five levels and eight leagues that follow a traditional winter football calendar (starting in August). The top tier is the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL), followed by SWPL 2.
A separate organisation, Scottish Women’s Football administers all the tiers below the top two, starting with the Championship (tier 3) and League One (tier 4). The fifth tier is four regional leagues; North, East, Central-West and South.
There is a ninth league, the Highlands and Islands League, but that operates with a summer season (February to October) and does not have promotion or relegation into the pyramid.
The SWPL
The top two divisions are run by the SWPL, which has been part of the SPFL structure since 2022, and now has turnover in excess of £1m per year. The Championship, League One and regional competitions are run by a separate organisation, Scottish Women’s Football.
Both SWPL divisions have the same 10-team league structure, in which each team initially plays the other nine at home and away, for a pre-split total of 18 matches. Like the men’s top tier, the leagues then split, but into a top six and bottom four which ensures both halves have an even number of teams (splitting into an odd number means a team must sit out every week. This is the case in League One which will again operate as an 11 team league, discussed later).
The top-six clubs then play each other twice more to finish with 28 league games, while those in the bottom four only play a total of 24 matches. The split has only been in place since 2025/26 as part of a reconstruction, which was brought in to reduce the overall fixture burden and produce more competitive games. Prior to the reconstruction, the SWPL had more games than any other women’s league in Europe.
Promotion and relegation is very similar to the men’s game too; the SWPL 2 champions go up automatically and the bottom SWPL club goes down. Teams finishing second, third and fourth in SWPL 2 enter the promotion play-offs. Third hosts fourth, second hosts the winner, and the surviving club faces the team finishing ninth in the SWPL at a neutral venue.
At the other end of SWPL 2, the bottom club is relegated automatically to the Championship, with the Championship winners promoted automatically, subject to meeting SWPL membership criteria. The ninth-placed SWPL2 side faces the Championship runner-up in a play-off for a place in the second tier.
In terms of league position, the SWPL differs from the SPFL leagues in that teams level on points are separated by head-to-head record rather than overall goal difference, and indeed overall goal difference is only the EIGHTH tie-breaking criteria. This makes sense given some of the disparity in quality between the teams, with large scores often ranked up against the team in the bottom half.
The SWPL tie-breaker criteria:
Head-to-head points
Head-to-head goal difference
Head-to-head goals scored
Post-split goal difference
Post-split goals scored
Post-split wins
Overall wins
Overall goal difference
Overall goals scored
Below the SWPL
Scottish Women’s Football are an organisation separate to the SPFL group, and they administer all Scottish football below the top two tiers. The 12-team Championship (third tier) has a traditional home-and-away programme of 22 matches. The third tier champions gain promotion into SWPL 2, with the runners-up entering the play-offs.
League One was also meant to have 12 clubs, but Armadale Thistle withdrew and folded their senior team in July after player departures and the resignation of their management staff. It now operates with 11, so one club sits out each week. After an initial 20-match home-and-away fixture list, the division splits into a top six and bottom five for one further round of fixtures. Top-six teams will play 25 league games and bottom-five clubs will play 24.
There will be restructuring in League One (fourth tier) this season; the bottom club will be relegated, but the champions of all four regional SWFL divisions will be promoted. That will expand League One from 11 to 14 teams for next season, with the SWF’s longer-term ambition to establish two divisions at the fourth tier by 2030/31.
