Former Liverpool Women’s boss Matt Beard believes scrapping relegation in the Women’s Super League would be a ‘massive mistake’.
Beard, who parted ways with Liverpool last week, has now demanded that the seismic change to the women’s game in England doesn’t go through.
WSL clubs will vote by the end of the season on whether or not to scrap relegation.
Should it pass the vote, relegation would stop from the 2026/27 season as part of a plan to gradually increase the size of both Championship and WSL to 16 teams leading up to the 2030/31 season.
They would continue to promote, allowing one extra club to join the top-flight every season for the next four years. It’s understood relegation could subsequently be reinstated in the 2030/31 season.
There is the opportunity to follow the American system, whereby a closed league without the jeopardy of relegation and the financial issues that come with it would operate that removes promotion and relegation.
Beard admitted that the top three of Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal are spending a ‘lot more’ than the rest of the league.
The spending of the top clubs has resulted in the league being dominated by them, with no room for the clubs with less financial backing to compete on the same level.
Speaking on The Women’s Football Show on talkSPORT 2, Beard said: “A closed league would be a massive mistake.
“If you look at the English pyramid, you can’t change that. It would be a massive mistake, people would lose interest, clubs would lose interest because what’s the point if you can’t get in the division. What’s the point in spending money below?
“I think it’s gonna have a massive, massive knock-on effect on the ability of players to earn a living as a professional footballer.
“If you look at tier three, you’ve got some clubs that are full time that pay full-time salaries with the hope of breaking into that top division, which is the Super League. I think it’d be a massive mistake.
“I think the other thing that the players would need to be careful of, if you consider America, you’ve got the MLS and I think there’s one division below, whereas here we’ve got 11, 12 tiers of football in men’s football, and you’ve got the same in women’s football. It would be a massive mistake in my opinion.”
On the growth of revenue in the game, he explained: “I just think it’s about visibility, if you look at Chelsea and Arsenal as an example, I think you have to spend money to lose money, to gain that fan base.
“If you don’t know when the games are, then it becomes an issue. I think there needs to be more across the board, whether it’s the Super League, whether it’s the clubs themselves, they need to put more money into marketing the games.
“I remember being in America, and America had just won the World Cup. We [when Beard managed Boston Breakers] played Orlando, and and in that team was Alex Morgan.
“The amount of people that came, and the way Boston marketed those games was like the USA superstars were coming in, they’ve just won the World Cup.”
Beard has previously managed WSL sides Chelsea and West Ham before moving to Liverpool in 2012.
He spent three years there before moving to the US to manage Boston Breakers, West Ham and Bristol City before returning to Liverpool.
Liverpool are currently sixth in the WSL.
