2016 Scottish Women's Premier League

The 2016 Scottish Women's Premier League was the 15th season of the SWPL, the highest division of women's football in Scotland since 2002. For the first time, the league was split into two divisions of eight teams each, SWPL 1 and SWPL 2.

The split into two divisions reduced the number of top-division teams from 12 to 8. The change was made to increase competitiveness in the league.[1] SWPL 2 became the new level 2 Scottish women's league, displacing the First Division (SWFL 1) to level 3.

The restructuring had begun in 2015 by requiring four SWPL clubs to be effectively relegated. Lewis Melee quoted a manager critical of the SWF's consultation and lack of notice for the league's new clubs: "Rather than saying we need to finish 11th for our first year in the league they were having to finish 8th and they didn’t have a 6 to 12-month plan to prepare… they were probably the ones that suffered more than anyone".[2]

At the end of the season in October 2016, Glasgow City were champions, ahead of Hibernian.[3][4] City became the first senior football club to win ten Scottish league titles in succession. The champions of SWPL 2 were Hamilton Academical,[5] replacing Forfar Farmington in the top tier for the 2017 season.

  1. ^ "SWPL Reconstruction: Will It Work? | Scottish Women's Football". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  2. ^ Melee, Lewis. "An exploration of the Scottish Women's Premier League 2016 league restructure" (PDF). Abertay University. p. 49 ('41'). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 March 2022.
  3. ^ "City close in on 10 in a row". Glasgow City FC. 9 Oct 2016.
  4. ^ "Glasgow City clinch 10 league titles in a row by beating Hibs". BBC Sport. 23 Oct 2016.
  5. ^ "Where Are They Now? – 2016 The First SWPL 2 Title Winners". Accies WFC. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020.