https://www.change.org/p/kelly-simm...ow-fair-promotion-to-the-women-s-super-league And tell all your friends, family and acquaintances This petition is about fairness and justice in the world of women's football. Even if you do not support the teams in question, or even particularly have much interest in women's football, the issue at hand is far wider than that. With the expansion of the Women's Super League and the introduction of a second tier, this has drastically altered the shape of women's football. In affect, this has created a two-tier system between the Women's Premier League and the Women's Super League. Last summer it was announced that the FA would give two teams in the Women's Premier League the opportunity to be promoted to the Women's Super League, one for the 2014/15 season and one for the 2015/16 season. However, the top tier of Women's Premier League is made up of two parallel divisions: the Northern Division and the Southern Division (similar to the Conference North and South in men's football). Thus it announced that this would be determined by a play-off: initially announced as two-legged, and then a one-off play-off at a neutral venue. I believe this system is incredibly unfair and almost cruel. Both the WPL Southern Division and WPL Northern Division winners have won their respective leagues on merit, and so surely both deserve the right to be promoted? To then force two teams who have won their leagues to play each other in such a crucial match seems unfair to say the least. Furthermore, this means one club will go from the elation of winning the league to the despair of missing out on play-offs. A season which would have finished with a note of triumph and celebration, would now finish on a much bleaker note. It is understandable that there is the need to maintain the quality on the pitch of the WSL by ensuring any teams that are promoted are able to compete, however have not these two teams proven their quality over the course of the season? In addition, the play-off is just 90 minutes of football and anything can happen in 90 minutes, it hardly seems a fair judgement of the quality of two teams. This is particularly the case as the play-off between Portsmouth and Sheffield was determined by a single goal in the last ten minutes of the game. Play-offs themselves are not necessarily a bad thing and can add excitement and interest to the end of the season, however in men's football the play-offs consist of the teams that finish between 2-6 (depending on how many automatic promotion positions there are), thus is not something the league winners should have to go through. This is how it should be: if a club wins the league, it should gain promotion. It would not be accepted if teams such as Bournemouth, Bristol City (or to give an example of two teams that play in parallel divisions), Bromley and Barrow won their respective leagues and then were forced to play a play-off which meant they might not even get promotion, therefore it should not be tolerated in women's football either. To sum up the demands of this petition: Portsmouth FC Ladies (champions of the Women's Premier League Southern Division) should be promoted to the Women's Super League alongside Sheffield FC Ladies For the 2015/16 season, rather than having promotion determined by a play-off between the winners of the WPL Southern Division and WPL Northern Division, each division should be given one automatic promotion place, given to the champions of that division n.b. This petition is not supported or endorsed by Portsmouth FC Ladies or any other women's football club
