Clubs will be invited to apply for membership of the competition, with the lower tiers continuing to run over the traditional August to May period.

 

The FA board also approved the introduction of central contracts for England players which would give them the financial support to at least reduce their outside work commitments.

 

In addition, they have backed the proposal to appoint a women's performance manager.

 

FA chairman Lord Triesman said: ''It is very good news that the biggest female participation sport in England will achieve perhaps the biggest boost in its history.''

 

More than 1.3 million girls and women now play some form of football, and the FA has 52 licensed FA Centres of Excellence in operation across England, providing weekly quality coaching and a localised fixture programme for talented girls from the age of 8-16.

 

That progress has also been reflected on the international stage.

 

England most recently reached the quarter-finals of the FIFA Women's World Cup in China last year, a performance which qualified them for the Olympic tournament in Beijing last month but which they were unable to take up because of the controversy surrounding the participation of a British football team in the Olympics. 

 

The British Olympic Association and the FA have promised that a team will participate in the 2012 tournament in London and the new league will hope raise standards ahead of that.

 

England Women's coach Hope Powell said: ''This is another massive step forward for women's football and the England teams.

 

''The new Super League will provide a concentrated, high-quality competition, and during the summer months give the game an exposure when there is no other top-flight football being played.

 

''I also hope that it will prevent our best players from joining the Women's Professional Soccer organisation in the USA.

 

''I am very confident that the new performance unit and central contracts will help us raise the bar further at the elite level and build upon recent successes.

 

''Our teams will now arrive at tournaments in early or mid-season, rather than at the end of a long nine to 10 months, as was the case at Euro 2005 and in last September's FIFA World Cup in China.

 

"These are very exciting times for everyone involved in the women's game.''

 

The weekend the England team will resume their Euro 2009 qualifying campaign, with just two draws away to Czech Republic and Spain being enough to reach next summer's finals in Finland.

 

This Autumn, England's under-20 and under-17 women's teams will also compete in their respective age group World Cup Finals, in Chile and New Zealand.