The Women's National League South, currently known as the FA Women's National League Southern Premier is a league in the third level in the women's football pyramid in England, along with the Northern Premier division. These two divisions are part of the FA Women's National League and below the Women's Super League and Women's Super League 2.
The league is played on a home and away basis, with each team playing each other twice, and points being awarded in the standard three points for a win format. The bottom two clubs are relegated, also on a geographical basis, to the Division One South West, and Division One South East.
For the 2023/24 season, changes were made meaning that two clubs would be relegated from the Women's Championship allowing one team each from National League Northern Premier and Southern Premier to be promoted to the Championship rather than having to play a season end playoff. This change resulted in two teams being relegated from the Championship at the end of the season.
Southern Premier Division teams are eligible to play in the Women's National League Cup as well as the Women's FA Cup.
It was known as the 'Women's Premier League Southern Division' before the 2018âÂÂ19 season.
From the 2014âÂÂ15 season until the 2023-24 season, the winning team from the National League South took part in a play-off game against the winning team of the Northern Division of the National League. The overall winner of this match was promoted to the Women's Championship. The overall champions of the FA Women's National League, the teams promoted in this period, are marked in bold.
From the 2023-24 season onwards, the English FA decided to remove the play-off between the two winners of the National League divisions, with both teams being promoted to the Women's Championship.