FIFPRO
FIFPRO
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25/08/2025

The success of the Women's Champions League in recent years has been clear to see: 90,000+ capacity crowds, record revenues and streaming views in the millions.

But while the growth in women’s football in Europe keeps accelerating at the top, many players in the Women’s Champions League qualifying rounds are still fighting for basic working conditions.

Last year, Croatian club ZNK Osijek defeated the champions of Slovakia and Republic of Ireland before bowing out at the hands of Dutch side FC Twente. Despite competing in the same round as the likes of Real Madrid, Roma and eventual champions Arsenal, Osijek’s conditions did not mirror that of a professional football club.

"The salary is under 1,000 euros and most of the players are working somewhere else – waitressing, cleaning cafes, coaching youth categories – to survive the month," said one former Osijek player who was part of last year’s European run.

"When we got some sort of serious injury, we had to look after ourselves the club didn’t have a competent physio and didn’t provide rehabilitation or operation."

In other words, although the players have expectations to meet professional standards and behave as professional footballers do, and might well fall under the definition of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players of a professional player, these sub-standard working conditions do not provide players with a professional work environment.

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Gradski Vrt Stadium, home of Croatian side ZNK Osijek

'Champions League payment amounted to bag of groceries'

Senior players who had significantly contributed to Osijek’s dominance in Croatia in recent years – one player had won 14 national championship titles in 15 years – raised questions about how fairly the club were distributing competition expenses from UEFA.

In the first round of the competition, where Osijek had home advantage for their two Round One games against Spartak Myjava and Peamount United, the club received €120,000 for all competition expenses, yet according to one former player: "We found out that the organisation for our games and all expenses was about half of what we received."

€140,000 was then assigned by UEFA to cover travel and accommodation for their game against FC Twente in Enschede, Netherlands. However, questions were raised again about how the club were distributing those funds.

"We travelled by bus to Belgrade [editor’s note: 176km], then Wizz Air flight to Dortmund, then bus from Dortmund to Enschede [editor’s note: 140km]. The hotel cost in the Netherlands was 8,100 euros and return tickets for all 28 people via Wizz Air were €13,000 – far below the claimed 140,000 euros."

When the players were given 200 EUR each as a Champions League payment from the club, they approached the club president for answers.   

"Nobody is playing football just for money; what we have in abundance and what we are most proud of are our medals and trophies. All we have is our dignity and enough self-respect to know we were being insulted.

"We built the history of the club, created a brand that makes all of us – the entire city –proud. Yet the contribution of the players to the club, where we spent half our lives, was devalued by bonuses equating to a bag of groceries."

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ZNK Osijek met FC Twente in last year's qualifying rounds

Players forced to find new clubs

After an unproductive meeting with the club’s president, eight players at Osijek with vast national team experience posted an open letter to shed light on the situation. They received overwhelming support from the Croatian public and their fellow players in the country.

"We gave our soul, love, and life for this club, created a brand widely known, but when we touched the main problem this generation has, we were attacked and rejected by people from whom we deserved most respect, and that's our president and club management.

"We were forced to find another club and left the place where we created so many memories and historical successes."

While the Croatian Football Federation says the league is professional, according to Croatian player union HUNS, 90 percent of players have a second job and thus question this professional status given the insufficient conditions provided to the players.

HUNS provided support to the eight former Osijek players and helped them find new clubs. "They helped us with their lawyer and soon we were free players. They were our source of information, guidance for future steps and people from trust."

The union remains committed to developing better conditions for women’s players in Croatia. "It is necessary to improve and advance the rights and status of women’s footballers [in Croatia] which unfortunately is not at a satisfactory level," the union said. “The conditions and investments in the women’s game must be significantly improved."