One in five women's players experienced disordered eating over a 12-month period, according to a survey of footballers participating in a FIFPRO-led study tracking their health.
While the prevalence of disordered eating is lower than in aesthetic disciplines like gymnastics, and others such as judo and boxing which have strict weight categories, the finding underlines the need for a better understanding of disordered eating in professional football.
Disordered eating can be understood as an unhealthy relationship with food which covers many behaviours such as restricting food intake and excessive exercising. Some thoughts, behaviours and attitudes will overlap with eating disorders, but that term is reserved for those experiences which have received clinical diagnosis.
Dr Alex Culvin, FIFPRO’s Head of Strategy and Research for Women’s Football, discusses what the football industry can do to address the issue.
FIFPRO: As a former professional footballer yourself, are you surprised by the finding on disordered eating?
Dr Alex Culvin: Sadly, it’s not a big surprise to me – in my experience both as a player and when I conducted my PhD research in 2019, I would say that this is quite an entrenched problem in women’s football. When I was playing (retired in 2012), I would say many of my team-mates had an unhealthy relationship with food. But it is also understandable: from an early age, your relationship with food is about performance. You might want to eat a burger, but the consideration footballers make is: will this fuel or hinder my performance? That triggers a different relationship with food.
It’s not talked about enough because it’s not prioritised and is also normalised within sport. As a player, your life is about measurement, quantification and surveillance on the body as it relates to performance. Yet, like anything, there is a ripple effect. The ripple effect of body surveillance is that players feel pressured to look a certain way and weigh a certain weight; that again can trigger an unhealthy relationship with food, especially if the results are used in a way that shames players about their bodies. An opposite but equally damaging consequence is that players receive positive reinforcement from coaches, team-mates and on social media about looking athletic and lean; this can be quite dangerous in a performance-centred, competitive environment.
Do stereotypes and conformity play a role too?
There is an idealised stereotype of an athlete and that is one that is lean, muscular, strong and athletic. This is also a very masculinsed ideal of an athlete. Most women are genetically different to men, meaning they do not build as much lean muscle and generally have a higher body fat percentage, which they need physiologically.
Yet, after decades of discrimination and exclusion in football, and with women still operating in the margins, the desire to prove themselves is strong. This desire can also have adverse effects on their body image and perception of what a professional footballer should look like. This is complex but can have an impact on a player’s relationship with their body and food.
What steps can football take to address this?
Players should not be simply treated as performance machines, whereby there is a constant and rigorous quantification of the body. In many club and national teams, there is a routine of checking body fat and weighing players – there is constant surveillance, and this is without any real performance-related indicators tied to these methods. There is this very old school approach of players being weighed, and for what? It instils fear into players, with the risk of fat-clubs and shaming. This has to stop if we are to start building environments that evoke healthy relationships with food.
It’s partly about education. We need to raise awareness around disordered eating, supporting players and the wider football industry to understand that they do not need to have a specific body shape. They need to understand that you can also eat for enjoyment – that’s completely fine and healthy. Personally, it took me a long time to understand this. I also think nutritional experts play a huge role. Clubs and national teams often do not prioritise this role within their wider multidisciplinary teams. This is partly to do with financial resources, yet it is something that should be established as a minimum requirement in any high-performance environment.
Is it feasible to reduce the quantification of players’ bodies?
Yes, absolutely. There is no direct link between a player’s weight and performance, and so there is a very strong argument to suggest that clubs and national teams could stop weighing players on the grounds that it is a hindrance to them flourishing as human beings. Eradicating this archaic practice also tells players that all body shapes can play football and that we do not have to prescribe to societal ideals of what an athlete should look like. This would be an innovative and important step.
What else can be done to support women’s players experiencing disordered eating?
As the game continues to grow, mental health support becomes critical and is something that should be standardised throughout professional women’s football. It cannot be a player’s responsibility to source their own support.
When it comes to mental health, players are understandably uncomfortable sharing sensitive information internally at their club. This is partly to do with a perception that athletes should be physically and mentally strong, but also for fear it might prejudice their careers. That’s why it can be argued that players should have access to a trusted person, who has no bearing on team selection, to report mental health issues safely.
What else has changed since you started playing?
What exacerbates disordered eating more than anything today is social media, which is clearly much more prevalent than when my career started. Players today feel their body shape is being constantly scrutinised online. A compounding effect of this scrutiny is that professional women’s players are reliant on social media and the sponsorship deals that emerge as a consequence, to prop up their sometimes-meagre income as a professional footballer. This is quite a fragile position to be in, as players are exposed to social media and scrutiny due to their financial position with all the associated bodily pressures that come with that exposure.
What hasn’t changed is that this remains a topic rarely talked about in public. There is a lack of critical discussion, and so the results of this survey, whilst concerning, is also an opportunity to elevate the issue and problem-solve through player-centric solutions. And these player-centric solutions are not about ‘fixing’ the player, but rather critically reflecting on and evolving the systems and structures in which these issues emerge.