On Monday, the NWSL published its outline of the schedule for 2025 NWSL regular season and playoffs. With no changes in the number of teams and the same media rights agreements still in effect, the 2025 footprint only deviates slightly from the 2024 season’s footprint.
As in 2024, the NWSL will play a balanced regular season with 182 total matches, plus seven playoff matches, and a single Challenge Cup match.
Also on Monday, the NWSL released its “Competition Calendar” which details key roster and player transaction dates, along with start and end dates for preseason training, the regular season, and the playoffs.
A combined schedule which lays out the 2025 schedule footprint, competition calendar, and FIFA international windows is included below.
In 2024, the full regular season schedule was announced on Thursday, January 25th (NWSL press release), so there are still a few weeks until the full 2025 schedule should drop.
2025 Format Summary
The 2025 NWSL schedule mostly follows the same footprint as 2024, except for a few minor differences:
- The Challenge Cup match will be played a full week ahead of the regular season, rather than on the Friday before a Saturday opening day.
- There will not be any league-organized club friendlies, so no NWSL x Liga MX Feminil Summer Cup.
- The 2025 regular season will pause after Sunday, June 22nd and is expected to resume on Friday, August 1st. That is seven days shorter than 2024. Also, the 2025 regular season pause begins two weeks earlier, and should resume three weeks earlier. (Note: While the start date of the pause is known, the footprint does not specify when the regular season will officially resume.)
As in 2024, the NWSL will play a balanced 26-match home-and-away regular season schedule that starts in mid-March and runs through early November.
The 2025 NWSL playoffs will be the same format and contested over the same weekends in November, with the Championship held on Saturday, November 22.
While there is no Summer Olympics or FIFA Women’s World Cup scheduled for 2025, four of the six confederations have summer competitions scheduled, with the most notable being the 2025 UEFA Women’s Euro. CONMEBOL (South America), CAF (Africa), and the OFC (Oceania) also have multi-week competitions planned. Thus, the NWSL regular season will be paused for the first several weeks of the summer. During this time, clubs may organize exhibition matches, e.g. with USL Super League teams and foreign clubs from the Liga MX Feminil and Canada’s new Northern Super League.
As has been the norm for the NWSL, no “All-Star” match will be held.
2025 TV and Streaming Summary (USA)
For the 2025 season, the NWSL will be in the second year of its current bundle of domestic media rights agreements, so there will not be any significant changes in which TV channels and streaming services will have matches:
- Each regular season weekend will have a Friday night match on Amazon’s Prime Video.
- Each regular season weekend’s Saturday night will have a double-header on the ion channel.
- Select regular season matches will air on CBS, CBS Sports Network, ABC, ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPN Deportes. (All ABC/ESPN matches will be simul-streamed on ESPN+ in English and Spanish.)
- CBS will also stream some matches via Paramount+ and its free streaming CBS Sports Golazo Network channel.
- The remaining matches will be on the league’s NWSL+ streaming platform (details).
The distribution of playoff matches is the same as 2024:
- Prime Video will have one quarterfinal.
- CBS will once again air the Championship match, plus one semifinal and quarterfinal.
- ABC/ESPN will air two quarterfinals and one semifinal.
Detailed 2025 NWSL Schedule Overview
Tuesday, January 14: Final day to trade players before updated CBA goes into full effect (11:59 p.m. ET)
Wednesday, January 15: Earliest day that preseason camps may start
Tuesday, January 28: Primary transfer window opens
Wednesday, February 5: Latest day that preseason camps may start; 40-player Preseason Roster Deadline (12:00 p.m. ET)
International Window: Monday, February 17 to Wednesday, February 26 (3 matches) — SheBelieves Cup
Wednesday, February 19: 32-Player Preseason Roster Deadline (12:00 p.m. ET)
Friday, March 7: 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup (Orlando Pride vs. Washington Spirit)
Wednesday, March 12: Roster Compliance Deadline (12:00 p.m. ET) — Roster must be between 22 and 26 players
Friday, March 14: Opening Day of 2025 Regular Season
Monday, March 24: Primary transfer window closes
International Window: Monday, March 31 to Tuesday, April 8 (2 matches)
International Window: Monday, May 26 to Tuesday, June 3 (2 matches)
Monday, June 23 to Sunday, June 29: NWSL Mandatory Break
International Window: Monday, June 23 to July ? (2 to 4 matches)
- to Tuesday, July 1 (2 matches) — UEFA and any other confederation
- to Wednesday, July 2 (3 matches) — all confederations except UEFA
- to Saturday, July 5 (4 matches) — only for AFC
Monday, June 30 to Sunday, July 27: NWSL Club-Planned Exhibition Games
Tuesday, July 1: Second transfer window opens; 2026 Free Agency period begins
Women’s National Teams Summer Competitions
- UEFA Women’s EURO: July 2 to 27
- OFC Women’s Nations Cup: July 4 to 19
- CAF — Women’s Africa Cup of Nations: July 5 to 26
- CONMEBOL — Copa América Feminina: July 12 to August 2
Friday, August 1: Expected resumption of the 2025 NWSL Regular Season
(This is not explicitly specified in the NWSL press release or Competition Calendar document. So, the date is an educated guess based on the end of the Exhibition Games window.)
Monday, August 25: Secondary transfer window closes
Thursday, October 9: Roster freeze
International Window: Monday, October 20 to either Tuesday, October 28 or Wednesday, October 29 (2 or 3 matches)
Sunday, November 2: Last day of 2025 Regular Season
Friday, November 7: 2025 NWSL Playoffs — Quarterfinals Weekend
Friday, November 14: 2025 NWSL Playoffs — Semifinals Weekend
Saturday, November 22: 2025 NWSL Championship
International Window: November 24 to December 2 (2 matches)
Tuesday, December 23: Transaction Moratorium Begins (6:00 p.m. ET)
Monday, December 29: Transaction Moratorium Ends (9:00 a.m. ET)
Source Links
NWSL Press Release: “National Women’s Soccer League Announces 2025 Schedule Footprint, Competition Calendar” (6-Jan-2025)
NWSL Document: “2025 Competition Calendar” (PDF)
FIFA Document: “Women’s International Match Calendar 2024-2025”
Women's Soccer Express 