PFA Launches First Pre-Season Camp for Out-of-Contract WSL Players

Every July, the same images flood timelines. Squads back in, fitness tests, new kits, old friendships. The rhythm of pre-season rolls on.

For players without a club, those posts hit differently.

“They’d had positive seasons or had come back from injury, but then they started seeing players returning to clubs and that’s when their minds started racing,” said Victoria Williams, Head of Women’s Football at the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and former Chelsea and Brighton & Hove Albion defender.

That moment – the quiet panic of not knowing where you’ll be playing while everyone else is lacing up – is exactly what the PFA set out to tackle this summer.

In July, the union launched its first dedicated pre-season training camp for out-of-contract players from the Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Super League 2 (WSL2). Held across the weeks commencing 15 and 22 July, it gave those in limbo something vital: a professional base, and time to think clearly about their next move.

A Camp Born From a Changing Game

This wasn’t a token gesture. It was a response to a landscape that has shifted quickly.

Investment has flooded into women’s football in England. The leagues are stronger, deeper, more attractive to international players. With WSL2 now fully professional ahead of the 2025/26 season, the margins are tighter, the stakes higher, and the room for error smaller.

The PFA has expanded its membership across the top two tiers, meaning more female players than ever can lean on the union’s support. That includes the most vulnerable period of all: the off-season, when contracts end and the phone might, or might not, ring.

“The intention has always been to run a women’s camp alongside the men’s,” Williams said. “Now that WSL2 is fully professional, we’re seeing more players who genuinely want to build a career in football. If they’re out of contract, especially in WSL2, dropping into tier three isn’t always straightforward because of the differences in professional conditions.

“As the game continues to grow, the need for this type of support is only going to increase.”

The camp is an answer to that growth. A recognition that professionalisation brings opportunity, but also a harsher edge.

More Than Just Keeping Fit

This was not a park session with a few cones and a whistle.

Across the two weeks, the PFA recreated the standards of a top-level club environment. Daily football sessions. Structured gym work. Access to wellbeing support, personal development guidance and the PFA’s business school teams. The idea was clear: treat out-of-contract players like the professionals they are, not like afterthoughts.

“I think people sometimes see these camps as somewhere players go because they haven’t got a club, but it’s not like that,” Williams said. “They’re there so players can train in an elite environment while having the time and space to make the best decision for themselves.

“If we can provide a pre-season environment that matches the standards they’d experience at a club, they don’t have to rush into a move simply because they feel they’re falling behind.”

For former Nottingham Forest striker Libby Smith, that difference was immediate. The camp didn’t just fill a gap in her calendar; it restored a sense of normality.

“The facilities are top. Everything is professional. It’s all run very smoothly,” Smith said.

“It makes a massive difference. It keeps motivation high and helps you get through the sessions. Being here has kept my fitness high and allowed me to work on the individual things I wanted to improve.

“The coaches have been brilliant, asking if there's anything specific I wanted help with. It will help me hit the ground running when I join a new club.”

That last line is the point. This isn’t a holding pen. It’s a launchpad.

A Place to Belong Again

Beneath the conditioning drills and tactical work, something more human was happening.

“There is that moment in summer where they think, ‘Thank goodness I've got somewhere to get in the car and go to and be around players’,” Williams said.

The words are simple, the feeling anything but. When a contract ends, players don’t just lose a wage. They lose a daily routine, a dressing room, a sense of purpose. The camp gave that back, even temporarily.

“It’s exactly what we hear from the men’s camps as well,” Williams added. “It’s a genuine feeling of, ‘I've got a purpose and somewhere to go where I feel supported and I’ve got a bit of autonomy over my future’.”

Autonomy matters. So does reassurance.

As the women’s game professionalises, the gaps between contracts can feel even more brutal. There are bills to pay, families to consider, careers to protect. Every day without clarity can feel like a day slipping away.

“There can be financial pressure, personal circumstances and the feeling that time is running out,” Williams said. “When teams start going back into pre-season and you still don’t know what’s next, it can be a very unsettling time. We want players to know they’re not on their own.”

That’s why the PFA focused on recreating a full club environment, not just a training schedule.

“When you’re training on your own and you don’t know what the future holds, that takes a lot out of you,” Williams said. “If we can recreate that club environment, remind players what they’re capable of and help them walk away confident in their ability and knowing people believe in them, then that’s a huge success.”

Early Results, Bigger Ambitions

For a first attempt, the signs were strong. Players received multiple offers before the camp had even finished. The model worked not just emotionally, but practically.

Crucially, the PFA has treated this inaugural camp as a starting point, not a finished product. Feedback from players is already shaping what comes next: an earlier start date, a longer window, and, eventually, friendly matches to mirror the men’s long-established programme.

“We want this to become a staple of the summer calendar,” Williams said. “Provided players want it, we’ll always put it on. We’ve learned a huge amount from this first year and now it’s about making next year’s camp even bigger and better.”

The players who showed up this summer did more than keep fit. They set a precedent.

“I really credit the bravery of the players who attended,” Williams said. “They didn't know what this was going to look like. There wasn’t a previous camp they could look at and there were no women who had done it before.

“The players turned up, worked incredibly hard and got so much out of it. Hopefully, next year more players will look at this and think, ‘Maybe I should register too’.”

The pictures that fill social feeds next pre-season will look familiar: new signings, old faces, fresh starts. Somewhere, just out of frame, a group of players will be running, lifting, planning – refusing to let uncertainty define them.

Now, at least, they’ll have a place built for exactly that fight.