Player Workload Monitoring Tool
What you should know
An unbalanced match calendar puts players' health and career at risk
An unbalanced calendar puts the health and career prospects of players at risk. It can threaten to diminish peak sporting performance and, consequently, the quality of competitions. This is an increasing issue in men’s and women's football and FIFPRO is committed to monitoring workload through the PWM platform.
Players' earning potential is being unfairly impacted
The career of a footballer is relatively short, and imbalances in the match calendar can impact players to the point of being unable to achieve their full potential. FIFPRO extensively researches this issue to provide a framework for best practice, in order to protect players and advocate for a balanced match calendar that takes into consideration the impact of overall workload, rest and recovery periods and international travel on players.
Players must come first
Current match calendar management shows little regard for players' overall wellbeing and requires urgent reconsideration, with regular revisions by competition organisers to ensure that player health, performance and career are the centre of decision-making.
Extreme Calendar Congestion: Adverse Effects on Player Health & Wellbeing
Overlapping competition schedules and elevated individual workload demands in the 2022/23 season are highlighted in a new FIFPRO report that warns of the impact on the health of professional players.
Raphael Varane: "We want to protect the game we love"
Manchester United defender Raphael Varane says the opinion of footballers is not being heard when it comes to the "dangerous" workload demands being placed on elite players. The 30-year-old expressed his concern about the English Premier League’s new approach to additional time.
Latest news
2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Workload Journey Report
The report underlines how the domestic and international calendars in the women’s game remain uneven and fragmented, leaving many players in the countries where football is less developed forced to move abroad to improve, or face the prospect of not having enough matches to reach their potential.
