91Èȱ¬

England Netball has announced plans to relaunch the Netball Super League from 2025 as part of a push to professionalise the division.

The sport's governing body began an open tender process on Tuesday for expressions of interest in joining the newly reformed league.

The Super League is the sport's elite domestic competition in the UK.

The revamp comes after England won a historic silver medal at the 2023 World Cup.

Existing clubs and other interested parties can now submit interest, with teams set to be confirmed by spring 2024.

England Netball has not yet determined how many teams can be involved.

The current Super League is made up of 10 teams with the 2024 season, set to be the last in its current guise, beginning in February and running until June.

But teams largely operate on a part-time basis with many players also juggling jobs or studies.

England Netball says the plan is to launch "the most competitive, commercially vibrant and captivating professional netball league in the world".

Super League managing director Claire Nelson, who was appointed earlier this year, said in a statement: "After a watershed summer of unprecedented growth in visibility and interest for women's sport as a whole, in which netball in particular has experienced historic new levels of success on and off the court, the time is right to capitalise on the sport's popularity and transform the domestic game.

"The relaunch of the NSL presents an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine and engineer what professional netball can and should look like here in the UK.

"We know that netball has huge potential in the women's sport and entertainment arena, and we have the drive and vision to fully unlock it in order to position the NSL as a pioneering, exciting and game-changing proposition within the sports market."

The hope is that the new league will rival Australia's Suncorp Super Netball League, which is fully professional and widely considered to be the best league in the world.

The Super League started in 2005 but many of the sport's stars, including several England players, ply their trade in Australia.

England Netball chief executive Fran Connolly said: "Transformational yet sustainable change will take time, but we believe that going through a tender process will enable us to set new standards for the future and ensure we deliver a competitive league with clubs that are ready and able to embrace the professional era.

"With this next chapter, it's right that we give existing clubs the opportunity to fully consider, and demonstrate, whether they have the desire and capabilities to embark with us on the professionalisation journey, whilst remaining open to the interesting prospect that any new clubs may present."

Netball is the most-participated in team sport for women in England with more than three million women taking part annually.

The new NSL plans aim to translate that to consistent interest in the elite game by improving the league with more arena matches, better salaries and increased competition across the teams.

Loughborough Lightning won the 2023 Super League, beating London Pulse in the final, but the top four teams who made the semi-finals had already booked their place with four rounds of the season left to play.