On March 20, just a few days before the start of the National Women’s Soccer League season, the league sent out its 2023 competition guidelines, including it’s roster rules, deadline tables and much more.
NWSL rules are notoriously complicated and difficult to follow even for those whose job it is to know them, so our goal is to help you better understand some key elements.
The major milestones to watch out for are going to be the closure of the primary transfer window — when teams can still sign players — which will happen on Thursday, April 18. The secondary window runs from June 28 through July 25, overlapping the World Cup.
As a mechanism for adding players, the 45 day Injury/Illness List was added. Basically, if a player is expected to miss at least 45 days due to an injury, they can be added to the list and their team can sign a replacement player.
How does this differ from the season-ending injury (SEI) designation? With the SEI, teams are able to also have salary-cap relief, whereas they don’t with the 45-Day IL, so the added…
