Women’s FA Cup changes delayed to allow ‘further feedback’ on proposed reforms

The Football Association (FA) has delayed its proposed reforms to the Women’s FA Cup by a year, with no format changes taking place for the 2026-27 edition.

Earlier this month, The Athletic reported the FA had proposed a raft of significant reforms, including introducing seeding, and excluding tier seven clubs from the competition.

However, the FA has said no changes will be made for next season after it “listened to feedback” as it wished to allow “further engagement” on any of the proposals.

Any reforms would fall under the FA’s 2024-28 strategy to review the tournament in order to broaden its appeal and reach.

The proposals included the seeding of the top four clubs from the previous Women’s Super League (WSL) season, replacing the draw with a World Cup-style bracket from the last 32 and limiting competing clubs to those in the top six tiers of English football.

WSL clubs enter at the last-32 stage of the competition, with the initial proposals removing individual draws from that round onwards and instead implementing a mapped-out route, as is the case in knockout stages of major international tournaments.

The Athletic outlined how the plans had faced strong pushback from clubs outside the top division, who had expressed their clear opposition to such changes directly to the FA.

Why had changes been proposed?

The FA is bidding to make its flagship competition more marketable, particularly in its later stages, sources say.

According to documents disseminated with clubs earlier this month, the FA stated the top-four seeding would be a “temporary” measure and that the proposals would have created the “highest chances of consistent high-quality matches throughout the later rounds” of the Cup.

According to the FA’s proposal, a bracket strategy “enables the development of storytelling, and enhanced narrative to the competition. It enables clubs and fans to plot their road to Wembley Stadium, building momentum and excitement, whilst supporting operational planning.”