Women’s Football – FIFPRO report highlights workload imbalance issues

Women’s football faces a peculiar problem where top players burn out from overcrowded schedules, while others struggle with too few matches, creating injury risks at both ends of the spectrum.

A new FIFPRO report on monitoring women’s workloads, published on Friday, shows that match pressure is skyrocketing at the pinnacle of the football pyramid, with top players having to juggle more matches for club and country while getting less recovery time.

The flip side, however, shows an equally disturbing picture in which domestic leagues with insufficient matches are letting players down due to “underloading”.

«We talk a lot about the players being exposed to a high workload, and that’s mainly because they are the highest profile players. We have to keep them fit because people want to watch them,» Alex Culvin, FIFPRO’s director of women’s football, told reporters.

“But at the other end of the spectrum, players who are underworked are at risk – if not more risk – of injury.

«A study was done and it showed that if players play fewer than 25 games per season, they are at greater risk of certain types of injuries.»

BIG DIFFERENCES IN ELITE LEAGUES

FIFPRO’s research revealed major differences even within elite competitions between the top divisions in Europe.

In the top leagues of Germany and France, players average no more than 14 matches across all competitions, which equates to around one and a half matches per month throughout the season.

The English Women’s Super League also illustrated the development gap, with an Arsenal first-team player amassing thirteen full matches more playing time than his second-tier counterpart, Crystal Palace.

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This lack of meaningful match time creates a vicious cycle, FIFPRO found, with players falling behind in match preparation and losing national team selection opportunities, widening the development gap.

“They need competition time, underload is a reality,” said Maitane Lopez, a Spanish international who plays for Chicago Stars.

“All these young players don’t have enough time to develop.”

ELITE OVERLOAD PROBLEM

At the other extreme is Spain’s Aitana Bonmati, whose hat-trick of winning the Ballon d’Or in recent years has also exemplified the problem of elite overwork.

The Barcelona midfielder’s remarkable success came with a brutal fixture list. Last season she played 60 games and helped her club to a double title in the domestic league and the cup, second in the Champions League and a run to the European Championship final with Spain.

However, the 27-year-old now faces around five months’ rest after undergoing surgery on a broken left fibula suffered while training with Spain.

Culvin said that while players like Bonmati play for big clubs, the conditions to thrive are not the same as those of elite men’s players who can afford to travel on charter flights and may have their own nutritionists, physios and gyms.

“These female players who are exposed to this high workload are still not playing in conditions where they can thrive, even at the biggest clubs in the world and even the best national teams,” said Culvin.

Lopez said the workload is increasing faster than the systems designed to protect the players.

“They don’t have the same circumstances – not even close – as the men’s side,” she said.

“For me it would be (important) to invest more in everything around the players so that they can fully rest and recover… Burnout is something, mental health is very important.”

Published on December 12, 2025