The FA Women's Premier League National Division is the second level of the English women's football league pyramid. From 1991 until the introduction of the summer competition FA Women's Super League the National Division functioned as the top league in England. Below it are simultaneously the Northern and Southern divisions and the remainder of the women's football pyramid. The league is played on a home and away basis, with each team playing each other twice, and points being awarded in the standard football format.
It was the women's football counterpart to the Premier League, although the women's league is not fully professional. The terms Women's Premiership and Ladies' Premiership thus generally referred to the National Division alone. Its clubs are generally amateur or semi-professional affiliates of their male Premier League and Football League counterparts.
Premiership teams also compete in the FA Women's Cup and the Premier League Cup, and the Premiership winner competes against the FA Cup winner for the FA Women's Community Shield. Until 2010 Premiership winners and runners-up also competed in the UEFA Women's Champions League as well.
For the 2006–07 season, the number of competing teams was increased from 10 to 12, with the promotion of the Northern (Blackburn Rovers) and Southern (Cardiff City) champions and no relegations despite test matches being played.
For the 2010–2011 season, the league reduced to eight clubs from twelve. Six clubs left to form the FA Women's Super League, as did the Northern Division champions and runners-up, Liverpool and OOH Lincoln. The six remaining National Division clubs and the Southern Division top two, Barnet and Reading, thus comprised the second-level National Division.
Read more about FA Women's Premier League National Division: National Division Clubs, 2012–13
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