ROGE25: Constructive dialogue enables unions to adapt toolkit to better support women’s players

• Raising Our Game Europe 2025, also known as ROGE25, is an initiative designed to improve standards and conditions in women’s domestic football
  
  
• Co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme, ROGE25 is equipping 12 player associations with resources to promote equal opportunities, access, and inclusion for women’s players in European leagues
  
  
• Online capacity building workshops helped player unions in shaping strategy of ROGE25 toolkit that will assist with elevating professionalisation of women’s football

European player associations gathered for online capacity building workshops to provide tailored feedback on the latest Raising Our Game Europe 2025 (ROGE25) framework ahead of player workshops taking place later this year.

Co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme and carried out in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, ROGE25 is designed to develop tools and resources to strengthen player unions by promoting equal opportunities, access and inclusion for women’s players.

FIFPRO Europe are carrying out the project with seven partner unions (Cyprus, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia), and five affiliate unions (England, Greece, Scotland, Spain, Sweden).

The capacity building workshops, which followed on from the project’s first cluster analysis report being presented to participating unions in November 2023, explored the biggest barriers in working conditions and shared strategies to elevate the professionalisation of women’s football in the participating nations.

“Our core aim with the ROGE25 project is to build the capacity of participating unions in Europe to better support women’s footballers and contribute to the development of global standards for player conditions,” said Caitlin Fisher, senior researcher on the project.

“That involves having a conversation about what professionalisation truly represents, how we assess advancement in professional pathways, and what to prioritise in order to realise the vision of truly professional women’s football in Europe.”

The project’s initial cluster report, which illustrated standards and conditions in 12 dimensions known as the Wheel of Conditions, has since been tailored to 11 key points on the back of input from the participating unions:

1. Collective Organising & Representation
2. Standard Contracts
3. Player Health
4. Safe Workplaces
5. Training & Match Environments
6. Wages & Compensation
7. Employment Stability & Promotion
8. Player Education & Development
9. Player Data Protection & Image Rights
10. Social Protection
11. Access to Remedy

“Those 11 dimensions are the foundations of minimum standards and will help support the professionalisation of women’s football,” said Nicolas Delorme, an associate professor in sociology of sport at the University of Bordeaux who has been working alongside Fisher on the project.

“After receiving feedback from player associations, we will soon engage directly with players to further shape the framework, which will in turn help us provide personalised solutions to improve conditions for women’s footballers in the participating countries.”

ROGE25 player workshops are scheduled to take place in April-August 2024. A panel event will also be hosted in Bilbao, Spain ahead of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final on Saturday 25 May 2024 as part of FIFPRO’s Women’s Football Summit.