The affirmation "it's coming home" was finally placed in the past tense when England's women's football team won the Euro 2022 tournament – and with it came a huge wave of interest in women's club football.
You can see many members of the Lionesses squad in action during the Women's Super League, which is just about to launch its 2024/25 season.
Chelsea are reigning champions, but there's been a big change at the top as their long-serving manager Emma Hayes has moved on to coach the United States women's national soccer team. Her successor is Sonia Bompastor, who has won the UEFA Women's Champions League as both a player and a coach.
There have also been some big player moves, too. Fan-favourite goalkeeper Mary Earps has left Manchester United and the WSL for a new challenge with Paris Saint-Germain of the French Première Ligue. And Jess Carter said goodbye to Chelsea over the summer, heading to NJ/NY Gotham FC in the US.
Elsewhere, the WSL's all-time leading goalscorer Vivianne Miedema has moved within the league from Arsenal to Manchester City, and Lucy Bronze returns to Chelsea from Barcelona (reuniting with Bompastor, who was her manager at Lyon).
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Meanwhile, Liverpool spent a club record £210,000 to sign rising star Olivia Smith from Sporting CP, and Manchester City have welcomed another highly regarded young player in Aoba Fujino – the youngest-ever goalscorer in any World Cup football tournament for Japan.
If Euro 2022 and the 2023 World Cup ignited your interest in following women's football at club level, then here's how you can watch the likes of Ella Toone, Beth Mead, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo and many, many more week in, week out.
Women's Super League 2024/25 – watch on TV and streaming
The TV rights to the Women's Super League are currently shared between Sky Sports and the BBC, following a one-year extension of the previous rights deal.
Sky Sports has the right to show up to 44 matches per season for its subscribers, with games also airing on the Sky-owned streaming service NOW for its customers who hold Sky Sports membership.
The cheapest way to access Sky is by signing up for Sky Stream, a dish-free service delivered via WiFi.
Until Wednesday, September 25, new Sky Stream customers can sign up for a month's free trial of the basic product, and add on Sky Sports for £20/month. From month two, the cost goes up to £48/month for Sky Stream with Sky Sports added on, presuming a 24-month contract.
Note that Sky's contract prices aren't fixed, so package prices may go up during your subscription period.
Sky Stream setup fees usually cost £39.95, but these may be waived at checkout.
Pros
- Quick and easy to set up and use
- Useful features like voice search and playlists
- On-demand content and 150+ live TV channels
Cons
- No local recordings like Sky Q
- Expensive when you add extras
Related: Sky Stream review
In addition to the Women's Super League, Sky Sports customers can watch men's Premier League football, plus coverage of the EFL Championship, League One, League Two and the Carabao Cup. The broadcaster also has the rights to various Scottish football fixtures and the German men's Bundesliga, with stars including Harry Kane.
Sky Sports coverage includes motor racing (such as live Formula 1, the all-women's F1 Academy series and IndyCar from the US), cricket, boxing, basketball, golf and rugby. There's also plenty of darts, netball and tennis including the US Open.
It also has a rolling news channel, Sky Sports News, and expanded its coverage capabilities further over the summer with the launch of a new Sky Sports+ channel and accompanying livestreams.
NOW pricing starts at £14.99/day, or £26/month if you're happy to commit to a minimum six-month term.
The usual price is £34.99/month, and for subscribers who take the six-month fixed term price, their monthly fee will go up to the full £34.99 from month seven onwards.
Women's Super League 2024/25 – watch matches for free
Meanwhile, you can still watch some WSL games for free this season, as the BBC holds the rights to 22 fixtures.
All the BBC's matches will be streamed for free on BBC iPlayer, with 18 of those games broadcast on linear channels.
All the games that aren't with Sky or the BBC (around 50% of total matches) will be streamed around the world on the Women's Super League's official YouTube channel. You'll still be able to watch Women's FA Cup games via the FA Player.
Women's Super League 2024/25 fixtures
To check out the full list of WSL fixtures for the season, complete with links to buy tickets for matches, head here. The 2024/25 season starts on Friday, September 20, with the final matches played on Sunday, May 11, 2025.
The first TV picks have been made as follows:
• Friday, September 20: Chelsea v Aston Villa (coverage starts 7pm on BBC Two)
• Sunday, September 22: Arsenal v Manchester City (coverage starts 12.30pm on Sky Sports)
• Friday, September 27: Crystal Palace v Chelsea (coverage starts 7pm on Sky Sports)
• Sunday, September 29: Manchester City v Brighton & Hove Albion (coverage starts 12.30pm on BBC Two)
Remember that the remaining matches will all be broadcast on the WSL YouTube channel.
Women's Super League Football table, plus Champions League qualifiers and relegation
There are 12 clubs in the Women's Super League, and you'll be able to see the most up-to-date table here once the season gets going.
The league's top three sides are guaranteed entry into the UEFA Women's Champions League at different stages (which you can watch on DAZN in the UK).
Last season, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City qualified, with the two latter teams making the second qualifying round fixtures which take place in the next week or so. Chelsea, as WSL champions, will enter the tournament at the start of the group stage.
Sadly, the lowest-place side in the WSL table at the end of the season is relegated to the Women's Championship, and is replaced by that league's champions.
In 2023/24, Bristol City were relegated after just one season in the top flight, with Crystal Palace taking their place for the 2024/25 season.
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Kate (they/she) is a freelance writer, editor, digital editorial trainer and data technician who first joined Digital Spy as an overnight freelance sub-editor in January 2011, after studying a postgraduate diploma in journalism at Salford University while working part-time as a social researcher.
In July 2013, Kate joined the DS staff team as chief sub-editor and following six years as the site's managing editor, their role expanded to incorporate Hearst UK's entertainment portfolio (including Digital Spy and its sibling titles Best and Inside Soap) between late 2024 and early 2026.
Kate has worked as a writer and editor since 2006, with bylines syndicated across the Hearst network and at organisations including Metro. They started their career as a TV production runner for the BBC and contributed to various music websites, blogs and zines while based in Manchester.
During her time at DS, Kate has previously been a freelance sub-editor and chief sub-editor.
Kate's team at Digital Spy were proudly nominated in the Best Subbing/Production Team category at the BSME Talent Awards 2022. Over the years, she has contributed to coverage of many, many Prime Days and Black Friday/Cyber Monday, and was part of the team that launched the DS weekly TV newsletter in November 2019 – followed by the Top of the Shops e-commerce newsletter in May 2024.
Kate's screen passions include Taskmaster (their biggest career regret remains turning down the opportunity to visit the house), nature documentaries, and live sport (up there with the greatest of all soap operas although if asked to choose, it's Corrie… every time).
Her highlights while working at DS have included interviewing Stevie Nicks on the red carpet for her documentary In Your Dreams, sitting at a press roundtable with Formula 1 commentary icon Murray Walker, watching a life-sized LEGO car being driven around Silverstone, writing an album-by-album retrospective of Lady Gaga's genre-defying career for Living Legends, and raising awareness of receiving and understanding a late-in-life ADHD diagnosis through the lens of Bianca and Freddie's EastEnders storyline.
Upon remembering to log off the internet, Kate enjoys live theatre, dance and comedy, appreciating nature, baking (badly), tending a recently-rented allotment (equally badly) and pampering one very spoiled rescue cat named Jolene.
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