An introduction to LIGA BPI's new format for the 2025/26 season

The Liga BPI, Portugal’s top-tier women’s football league, enters the 2025/26 season with a new competitive structure. This revised format aims to increase sporting quality, ensure a more balanced competition, and optimize the calendar to support better training conditions and international participation.

Teams Participating in 2025/26 season:

The league will now feature 10 teams (reduced from 12 in previous seasons):

• Benfica

• FC Famalicão

• Marítimo

• Racing Power FC

• Rio Ave

• SC Braga

• Sporting

• Torreense

• SC Guimarães

• Valadares Gaia

Goals of the New Format:

• Increase competitiveness, with fewer teams and a higher overall level of play.

• A more balanced calendar, allowing for better physical and tactical preparation, especially for clubs competing in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.

• Improved financial sustainability: with fewer teams, funding is better distributed, supporting club development.

• Alignment with the new structure of Portuguese women’s football, which now includes a Fourth Division starting in 2025/26.

The Liga BPI is now divided into two phases:

Phase 1 – Regular Season

The 10 teams compete in a double round-robin format (home and away), totaling 18 matchdays.

At the conclusion of this phase:

• The 1st-place team is crowned national champion.

• The 10th-place team is automatically relegated to the Second Division.

• The 8th and 9th-placed teams enter the Promotion/Relegation Play-Off.

• The winner of the Second Division is automatically promoted to Liga BPI.

Phase 2 – Promotion/Relegation Play-Off

This play-off involves four teams:

• The 8th and 9th-placed teams from Liga BPI

• The 2nd and 3rd-placed teams from the Second Division

The ties are played over two legs (home and away).

The two winners earn a spot in the following season’s Liga BPI.

After all this, we now look ahead to the start of the football season in Portugal.      

It all kicks off on September 6 and 7 with the Supertaça Feminina Vodafone, contested between the Liga BPI champion and the Taça de Portugal winner in 2024/25 .

The Liga BPI begins on September 13, alongside the Second Division and the Taça de Portugal.

The Third and Fourth Divisions will start on September 20 and 27, respectively.