2026/27 Roadmap: Key Dates for the Upcoming Season
The 2025/26 campaign is in the books. The next one is already looming into view. While the players grab a breather, the calendar for 2026/27 is quietly loading up with the dates that will define everything: transfers, league kick-off, European nights, cup ties and international breaks.
This is how the season will be built.
Pre-season: Opponents Still to Come
For now, pre-season is the great unknown. Friendly fixtures and ticket details are still to be confirmed, with announcements to follow on the club’s social channels once deals are finalised.
No dates, no venues yet. Just the certainty that those games will set the tone for what follows.
Transfer Window: Deals on the Clock
The summer market opens on Thursday, June 18. That’s the first day clubs can officially buy and sell players.
From that moment, the clock runs relentlessly to Deadline Day on Thursday, September 3. Every squad tweak, every late bid, every reshaped dressing room will happen inside that window.
WSL 2026/27: The Race Begins
Full Women’s Super League fixtures will land in the week beginning Monday, July 27. Only then will the pattern of the season be laid out: the derbies, the title six-pointers, the awkward away days.
What is already locked in is the frame of the campaign. The league kicks off across the weekend of Friday, September 4 to Sunday, September 6. The final round of fixtures is scheduled for Saturday, May 22.
From the opening whistle in early September to that last, nervy afternoon in May, every point will live inside that window.
Champions League: Straight Into the League Phase
Last season’s second-place finish in the WSL carries a major reward: automatic entry into the league phase of the Champions League.
The draw lands first. On Friday, September 4, the club will discover its six league phase opponents. From there, the European rhythm takes over.
The league phase starts on Tuesday, September 22, with the final game set for Wednesday, December 16. Between those dates, the Champions League will carve its own storyline across a series of midweek nights:
- September 30–October 1
- October 28–29
- November 10–11
- November 18–19
Once the group dust settles, attention turns to the knockouts. The draw for the play-offs and quarter-finals will be held on Friday, December 18.
If involved, knockout play-offs are pencilled in for Wednesday, February 3 or Thursday, February 4 (first leg), and Wednesday, February 10 or Thursday, February 11 (second leg).
Quarter-finals follow on Tuesday, March 23 or Wednesday, March 24 (first leg), then Wednesday, March 31 or Thursday, April 1 (second leg).
The semi-finals step into the spotlight in May: first leg on Saturday, May 1, second leg on Saturday, May 8.
And at the end of that road stands the biggest stage of all. The Champions League final is set for Saturday, May 29 at Stadion Narodowy in Warsaw. One night, one trophy, one chance at immortality.
Adobe Women’s FA Cup: Wembley in the Distance
The FA Cup journey begins later in the campaign, but it always carries its own kind of gravity.
The club enters at the round of 32, scheduled for the weekend of Saturday, January 16. Win there, and the round of 16 awaits on the weekend of Saturday, February 20 and Sunday, February 21.
Quarter-finals arrive a month later, on Saturday, March 20 or Sunday, March 21. From there, it tightens.
Semi-finals are booked for Saturday, April 10 or Sunday, April 11.
The final, as ever, belongs to Wembley Stadium. It will be played on Saturday, May 15 or Sunday, May 16. One of those dates will belong to a new set of cup winners.
International and Winter Breaks: Breathers in a Relentless Year
Even in a packed calendar, the season has its pauses.
The first international break runs from Monday, October 5 to Tuesday, October 13. The second arrives from Tuesday, December 1 to Saturday, December 5.
Then comes the mid-season exhale. The winter break stretches from Monday, December 21 through to Sunday, January 3, a rare window of rest before the run-in intensifies.
In 2027, the third international break takes place from Wednesday, February 24 to Saturday, March 6, followed by a fourth from Tuesday, April 13 to Saturday, April 24.
The fifth and final international break only begins after the domestic season, starting Monday, June 7, 2027. Many players will then pivot straight into global duty at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which runs from Thursday, June 24 to Sunday, July 25.
The fixtures are still to be drawn and the squads still to be settled, but the frame of 2026/27 is already fixed. The dates are there. The question now is simple: who will make them matter most?
