Most women’s World Cup players had “insufficient” support, survey finds

A survey of 260 footballers participating in the 2023 Women’s World Cup found that two-thirds were “not at their physical best” when the tournament began due to insufficient preparation time, a condensed international calendar and a lack of staff.

FIFPRO, the global players’ union, conducted the survey in the months following the record-breaking tournament, asking players from 26 of the 32 participating nations about various aspects of the competition, from travel and accommodation to the size of the teams. delegations, compensation and preparation time. , rest and recovery, and medical and mental health support.

The results showed that 53 percent of players surveyed did not believe they had had adequate rest before the tournament began, while 60 percent said they had also not had adequate rest after finishing the tournament, and 86 percent had less than two weeks of recovery time. before rejoining their national clubs.

FIFPRO guidelines recommend an off-season break of four weeks, with six weeks being necessary for adequate retraining before a league season or other major competition begins.

Its own Women’s Workload Report, the first edition of which was published last year, suggested that “overloading” players with high-intensity playing time, along with shorter rest periods in between, could be a factor. of risk in the development of serious injuries and exhaustion.

“I was trying to rest and prepare at the same time, which doesn’t really work,” said one anonymous player, while another commented that it was “mentally exhausting” to go from one tournament to immediately preparing for another.

Several Matildas felt the weight of this lack of recovery time, with players such as Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley returning to action for English club Arsenal in the UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers just 19 days after their last match. for the World Cup.

However, there were some key improvements over the 2019 edition: 94 percent of players surveyed said they flew business class to Australia or New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup. This was part of the requirements that 150 players requested in an open letter to FIFA four months before the start of the tournament.

However, the number of business class flights fell to 80 percent for the home leg, although FIFA and the federations predicted that logistical difficulties related to last-minute bookings once teams were eliminated would cause a decrease.

Caitlin Foord was one of the players returning to competitive football just two weeks after her final World Cup match.(Getty Images: Steven Paston)

But FIFPRO says that should not be an excuse.

“If this is the expected condition, then it has to be in the regulations; it has to be fully implemented,” said Sarah Gregorius, Director of Policy and Strategic Relations for Women’s Football at FIFPRO.

“We hope this will be an exercise where competition organizers can in the future work with participating member associations and determine the entry and exit strategy with the appropriate amount of travel conditions available to players.

“If you look at the way competitions are organized now (be it confederation championships, Olympics, World Cup qualifiers, whatever), the calendar is becoming more and more congested.

“Therefore, we must ensure that every parameter, including the timing of tournaments (and travel), is done in a way that helps players arrive in the best possible shape and return to their everyday environments at the club. in the best possible way to act there too.

Those difficulties were exacerbated by the increased number of staff members for each nation, which rose from 35 in 2019 to 50 for this year’s tournament, bringing staff size in line with that planned for the men’s World Cup.

But some players surveyed also criticized the quality and qualifications of staff members, with two-thirds saying the coaching staff could have been improved. One anonymous player even called for an investigation into a member of the coaching staff selected by his federation.

A glaring absence in FIFA delegation regulations is having staff members who can provide mental health support: 60 percent of players surveyed said mental health support was inadequate.

“That is at the discretion of the federation,” Gregorius said.

“A lot of the specifics around delegation staff members have to do with coaching qualifications (…) it’s not about qualifications or even the placement of a mental health and wellness person.

“Players tell us that a mental well-being professional at least needs to be in the environment because that is an area of ​​concern.”

Additionally, 10 percent of players surveyed said they did not receive a pre-tournament medical examination, while 22 percent did not undergo an electrocardiogram, both required under FIFA’s own regulations.

While the data captured was sufficient to draw general conclusions about players’ experiences, FIFPRO was not able to survey all players participating in the tournament because some federations do not yet have their own unions through which FIFPRO can communicate and distribute information. .

One such federation is Nigeria, which was one of the teams that publicly expressed concern during the tournament over the continued lack of payments to players by their administrators.

FIFPRO is therefore preparing a legal case on behalf of the national team players against the Nigerian Football Federation in the absence of its own representative union body.

Nigeria is not the only group of players who have yet to receive World Cup prize money directly from FIFA, although FIFPRO confirmed that the majority of players who participated in the 2023 tournament have already received their payment, and FIFA is actively negotiating with the remaining federations to ensure distribution.

However, the amount that players ended up receiving has been a problem in itself. Australia’s high income tax regulations mean that players who competed in Australia received less prize money than those who just competed in New Zealand, which has different tax laws.

Although FIFA was able to negotiate with the Australian government to reduce the withholding tax rate from 45 percent to 32.5 percent for players, FIFPRO admitted that navigating international tax regulations in this context was “new territory” for both. organizations due to the introduction of their new direct payment scheme to the player.

In light of this unequal (albeit unforeseen) distribution of prize money, the global union suggested that tax rates could or should be considered when awarding hosting rights to future World Cups and other major tournaments to ensure that FIFA and their confederations provide equal support.

This is particularly important in women’s soccer where, despite rapid improvements in soccer’s elite, one in three players who participated in this year’s World Cup still earn less than $30,000 a year from soccer, ​​while one in five needs to work. second job to make ends meet.

“Normally, in the past, I don’t think it was taken into account: even when I think about cases where a union negotiated as part of its collective agreement a percentage of the prize money, a country that withheld that amount of taxes would never was actually considered part of it.

“But we have set a new standard.

“I think now, when considering the next hosts of any major tournament where the distribution of prize money will be part of that conversation, these are the types of things that will now need to be looked at.”