Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas will kick off her time in the WSL when London City Lionesses host Manchester United in the opening fixture of the 2026-27 season on Sept. 4.
Putellas moved from Barcelona to Michele Kang's newest venture in a highly anticipated commercial pull for the league.
She was joined in Bromley this summer by other top-tier talents including Mapi León and Kadidiatou Diani. Former England No. 1 Mary Earps has also signed from Paris Saint-Germain and her first game back in the WSL will come against the club where she spent five years.
Champions Manchester City, who ended their 10-year wait for a second league trophy, start their defending campaign hosting newly-promoted Birmingham City, who return to the top flight after four years in the second tier.
The two other new faces to the league -- Crystal Palace and Charlton -- also have tough starts to life in the WSL both facing Merseyside teams at home.
Chelsea will be playing all their home matches at Stamford Bridge this season and begin their campaign in their new permanent home against Aston Villa.
Arsenal kick off their quest for a first league title since 2019 with a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion. The Gunners start the season with a challenging run of fixtures -- after playing Palace in matchweek two, they will face Man United, Chelsea and Man City in successive weeks.
Following consultation with fans and stakeholders, the league has expanded broadcast slots for Sky Sports to reintroduce a Friday evening kick off and a Sunday 6 p.m. BST slot while maintaining the Saturday and Sunday lunchtime kick offs.
The BBC will retain its 12.30 Saturday kick off time and Sunday 2.30pm slot.
This follows backlash from last season where the majority of games were played simultaneously on Saturday and Sunday lunchtimes.
This is the first 14-team season in the WSL, a jump from the 12 that have taken part since the 2019-20 season.
From this season onwards, two teams will be relegated from the WSL at the end of each season. The team that comes 14th will automatically drop to the WSL 2, while the team that finishes 13th will face the second-place team in WSL 2 in a singular playoff. The winner of WSL 2 is granted automatic promotion to the top tier.
The league will run until the weekend of May 22-23, 2027.
