FIFPRO presents key findings of project to benchmark professionalism in women’s football

• FIFPRO hosted a conference to share learnings from Raising Our Game Europe 2025 (ROGE25)
  
  
• Led by FIFPRO Europe in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, the project is co-funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme
  
  
• Executives from UEFA, European Club Association (ECA) and Italy’s Serie A Femminile gathered with players and representatives from 25 player unions at FIFPRO’s headquarters to exchange information about the project

FIFPRO hosted a conference to share learnings from Raising Our Game Europe 2025, a project co-funded by the European Union to address what football stakeholders all agree is the uneven spread of professionalisation in women’s football.

The project – known as ROGE25 - is co-funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ programme. Led by FIFPRO Europe in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, it has counted on the collaboration of 12 European player unions.

Executives from UEFA, European Club Association (ECA) and Italy’s Serie A Femminile gathered with players and representatives from 25 player unions at FIFPRO’s headquarters to exchange information about the project.

Caitlin Fisher, one of the project’s leaders, told the conference that FIFPRO has identified 11 important conditions for players to address the “uneven” standards across women’s football. These conditions are mapped out in a guidebook that will now serve as a road map for unions and football stakeholders.

The partners have also developed a FIFPRO Index for Player Conditions to benchmark the implementation of these 11 standards in clubs, and domestic leagues. The index rates the conditions out of 100, allowing stakeholders to identify the extent to which player support is lacking, and to track progress.

A sample index of the 12 participating European player unions found the lowest combined scores were for a ‘safe workplace’, ‘wages and compensation’ and ‘player health’.

Reflecting on these issues, Antria Michail, a Cyprus national team player since 2006 who also has a part-time job, spoke about the difficulties of being a footballer in her country, making an impassioned plea for better support.

“If I have a daughter, would I want her to play football? There’s no way I would want my daughter to be a footballer,” Michail said. She added that players need protection against being dropped from the team when they speak out about substandard conditions.

The highest scores overall from the 12-country sample index were for ‘collective organising and representation’, ‘social protection’ and ‘access to remedy’.

Diederik Dewaele, the ECA’s director of football, said “while growth in the women’s game was fast, there is still more work to do on different topics including competitive balance.” He said, “if we are going to professionalise, we have to do it together.”

Ilaria Pasqui, representing Serie A Femminile, said the women’s game in Italy is “still young,” with a club licensing system less than 10 years old but noting football in other continents is further behind. The FIFPRO index could be extended to other continents like Africa, Asia and South America, she added.

According to Laerke Tingleff, a player with Denmark’s FC Nordsjaelland, the index could also be “extremely helpful” for players looking to join a club abroad and seeking reliable information about conditions outside their home country.

“Sometimes, you have to rely on what an agent tells you,” Tingleff said. “There are many stories of players who went to clubs abroad and it did not go well.”

Seven player unions affiliated to FIFPRO participated in ROGE25 as partner unions (Cyprus, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia), while five took part as affiliate unions (England, Greece, Scotland, Spain, Sweden).

Nicolas Delorme, from Bordeaux University who helped to create the index, said that it can easily be used to benchmark clubs and leagues anywhere in the world.