ROGE25: Project’s first data findings on improving standards in women’s football presented to participating unions

• Raising Our Game Europe 2025, also known as ROGE25, is equipping 12 player associations in Europe with tools and resources to improve standards and conditions in women's domestic football
  
  
• Co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme, ROGE25 is carried out in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux
  
  
• Project’s first cluster analysis report, which maps the current professionalisation levels of 12 European countries, was presented to participating unions

FIFPRO member unions convened on Monday 6 November to give their feedback on the first Raising Our Game Europe 2025 (ROGE25) cluster analysis report.

Co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme and done in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux, ROGE25 is designed to develop tools and resources to support player associations with promoting equal opportunities, access, and inclusion for women’s players in various domestic leagues.

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 first round of data, which was collected in the first half of 2023, was presented to the participating associations and aims to measure the degree of professionalisation of the 12 countries involved. The cluster report illustrates current standards and conditions in 12 dimensions, known as the Wheel of Conditions, which includes:

1. Contracts
2. Health & Safety
3. Training & Match Environments
4. Wages & Compensation
5. Workload
6. Employment Promotion
7. Social Protection
8. Player Data Protection
9. Freedom of Association & Collective Bargaining
10. Non-Discrimination
11. Access to Remedy
12. Education

“As the indicators used in the cluster analysis report have the same weight, we wanted to hear feedback from our unions to determine whether some indicators should be added, removed or edited, whether some indicators should have greater or lesser weight, and whether any of the 12 dimensions should have greater or lesser weight,” said Caitlin Fisher, senior researcher on the project.

“Any modifications will naturally alter the initial analysis, but this is part of the process. We want to create the most accurate picture possible to help identify the areas which require the most improvement and give our unions the tools to tackle them efficiently.”

As far as the global score for each dimension of the Wheel of Conditions is concerned, contracts, education and social protection are the most advanced areas, whereas freedom of association and collective bargaining, health and safety require significant improvements.

Spain, Italy and Sweden have the higher scores whereas Scotland, France and Greece currently have the lowest.