Women's Super League to be shown on the BBC

BBC Two will air four FA Women's Super League programmes next season, providing goal round-ups, highlights, features and previews of England's World Cup qualifiers.

The BBC Sport website will also feature a weekly goals round-up throughout the Women's Super League season.

It will be the first WSL coverage to be shown on terrestrial television.

The Football Association's Kelly Simmons said: "This can be a watershed moment for the game in England."

The weekly goals round-up will also be shown on the BBC News Channel as part of Friday's Sportsday.

Simmons, the FA's director of national game and women's football, added: "Our elite football league being shown consistently on terrestrial television will enable us to take the game to a wider audience and engage new fans in the sport and, hopefully, inspire many more young girls to play the game."

In addition, BBC Two will air two further shows previewing women's football.

On 20 May Jacqui Oatley will look at the women's FA Cup final, ahead of live BBC Two coverage of the game on 26 May.

A second programme on 8 July looks ahead to the European Championships which can be watched on BBC Three and BBC Two.

From autumn 2013, the BBC will also show England's World Cup qualifiers for the tournament in Canada in 2015.

BBC director of sport Barbara Slater said: "We're delighted to be increasing our coverage of women's football across all of our platforms. We look forward to bringing our audiences a great range of women's football over the coming months."

The women's game is growing in the UK and hopes are high for England's women in the tournament in Sweden. England lost 6-2 to seven-time winners Germany in the final four years ago.