In a rare midseason change to its rules, the NWSL announced authorization for teams to loan players within the league effective immediately. The announcement coincided with guidance on the roster-building mechanisms applicable to the impending launches of Boston Legacy FC and Denver NWSL in 2026.
With this change, teams may now loan players to another NWSL club beginning with the upcoming secondary transfer window, which runs from July 1 through August 25. The loans will not impact a player’s annual salary, with part of the negotiation process determining how much of their wages will be covered by the club acquiring the player. Teams loaning in a player must, at a minimum, meet the league’s minimum salary threshold on a prorated basis.
No loan may be completed without the involved player’s approval, which is the same for any trade in the league under the collective bargaining agreement created last year.
As is standard for the sport, a player cannot be traded, transferred or further loaned during their loan spell. Teams can only loan in or loan out a maximum of three players per partner club, and can have no more than 12 players (combined, in and out) on loan deals at any given time. This is the first time in league history that intra-league loans are allowed.
“The introduction of intra-league loans — available to all teams — adds greater flexibility and opportunity for player development and strategic roster management league-wide,” league vice president of player affairs Stephanie Lee said in a statement.
The rule change is the latest in a series of alterations to the league’s rules that increase flexibility for players in their careers, offer clubs a greater number of ways to retool their squads and put the league in line with soccer leagues around the world. This past offseason was the league’s first without a college draft, and every player is eligible for free agency.
The ability to loan players also helps embolden teams to embrace the league’s Under-18 Entry Mechanism. The NWSL allows teams to have up to four under-18 players between their private entry list — an earmarking system that can hold a player’s rights for “up to a month” without signing a contract — and their active roster. These players’ contracts must last through the season in which they turn 18.
While some teams have entrusted teenage players with minutes, others may be more willing to sign players to such deals while finding loan partners to help get them minutes before working them into their rotation. The intra-league loans may also be crucial to the NWSL’s future Division II league proposed to begin in 2026. It’s also relevant when signing college players, encouraging teams to sign the best talents available regardless of immediate need or positional fit.
In the past, expansion teams rose to the top of the NWSL Draft order; the San Diego Wave made great use of that mechanism by selecting Naomi Girma in the 2022 Draft. More recently, the NWSL expansion draft, which was also abolished with the new CBA, helped new clubs build their rosters. Now, without either draft, the league altered its rules to create similar start-up benefits ahead of Boston and Denver’s expansion roster builds.
Per the press release, each team has access to $1,065,000 in allocation money, which is used to pay for players’ salaries outside the cap, to begin spending on July 1, 2025. The league provides 50 percent of those funds. Teams will have until December 31, 2027, to use all funded allocation money as NWSL looks to phase out the mechanism. If the league salary cap increases, available allocation money will be increased pro rata.
The initial threshold for transfers will be $968,000 more than the current teams through next summer’s window to give the expansion sides resources to build.
However, the teams are limited by the salary cap of $250,000 for signing college players or out-of-contract international players for the remainder of the calendar year. This is different from the $500,000 Utah Royals and Bay FC received upon their entry in 2024, but both of those teams had the benefit of an expansion draft.
Expansion teams are not required to meet the minimum roster size in 2025, but may not exceed the maximum roster size. Both Boston and Denver will be subject to the standard roster compliance dates in 2026.
The new rules could help the new sides start signing players earlier and loaning them to other teams for the remainder of the season, which wraps on Novemember 22 with the NWSL Championship.
(Top photo: Matt Cashore / Imagn Images)
