A survey of 260 footballers who took part in the 2023 Women’s World Cup has found that two-thirds were “not at their physical peak” when the tournament kicked off due to insufficient preparation time, a condensed international match calendar, and staffing inadequacies.
FIFPRO, the global players’ union, conducted the survey in the months following the record-breaking tournament, with players from 26 of the 32 competing nations asked about various aspects of the competition from travel and accommodation, to delegation sizes, compensation, preparation time, rest and recovery, and medical and mental health support.
The results showed that 53 per cent of players surveyed did not believe they had adequate rest before the tournament began, while 60 per cent said they also had inadequate rest after the tournament was over, with 86 per cent having fewer than two weeks’ recovery time before re-joining their domestic clubs.
FIFPRO guidelines recommend an off-season break of four weeks, with six weeks required for appropriate re-training before a league season or other major competition begins.
Their own Women’s Workload Report, the first edition of which was published last year, suggested that “overloading” players with high-intensity game-time, coupled with shorter periods of rest in between, could be a risk-factor in developing serious injuries and burn-out.
“I was trying to rest and prepare at the same time, which doesn’t really work,” one anonymous player said, while another commented that it was “mentally exhausting” transitioning out of one tournament to immediately prepare for another.
Several Matildas felt the brunt of this lack of recovery time, with players such as Caitlin Foord and Steph Catley returning to action with English club Arsenal in UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers just 19 days after their final World Cup match.
There were some key improvements from the 2019 edition, though, with 94 per cent of players surveyed saying they flew business class to Australia or New Zealand for the 2023 World Cup. This was part of the requirements that 150 women players requested in an open letter to FIFA four months before the tournament started.
However, the number of business class flights dropped to 80 per cent on the return leg home, although FIFA and federations predicted that logistical difficulties around last-minute bookings once teams were knocked out would lead to a drop-off.
But FIFPRO says that should not be an excuse.
“If this is the expected condition, then it needs to be in the regulation; it needs to be implemented fully,” said Sarah Gregorius, FIFPRO director of Policy and Strategic Relations for Women’s Football.
“Hopefully it’s an exercise where competitions organisers in future can work with participating member associations and determine the entry and exit strategy with the appropriate amount of travel conditions made available to players.
“Some players … had to go back and play some very important games quite quickly, and physiologically, you’re very limited if you don’t travel in the way that your body needs to as an elite athlete.
“If you look at the way competitions are being placed now — whether it’s confederation championships, Olympics, World Cup qualifiers, whatever it may be — the calendar is becoming more and more congested.
“So we need to make sure that every single parameter, including the timing of the tournaments [and travel], is done in a way that helps players get there in the best possible shape and get back to their day-to-day club environments in the best possible shape to perform there as well.”
Those difficulties were exacerbated by the increased number of staff members for each nation, which was raised from 35 in 2019 to 50 for this year’s tournament, bringing staff sizes in line with that provided for the men’s World Cup.
But the quality and qualifications of staff members were also criticised by some players surveyed, with two-thirds saying technical staff could have been improved. One anonymous player even called for an investigation into a technical staff member selected by their federation.
One glaring absence from FIFA’s delegation regulations is staff members who can provide mental health support, with 60 per cent of surveyed players saying mental health support was inadequate.
“That’s up to the discretion of the federation,” Gregorius said.
“A lot of the specificities around members of staff in the delegation has to do with coaching qualifications […] it’s not about qualifications or even the placement of a mental health and well-being person.
“I think the next round of discussions needs to be around not just the quantity of staff, but the quality of staff. And making sure that staff are being placed in the environment to help better the performance of the players.
“The players are telling us that a mental wellbeing professional at least needs to be in the environment because that’s an area of concern.”
Further, 10 per cent of players surveyed said they did not receive a pre-tournament medical exam, while 22 per cent did not have an electrocardiogram, both of which are mandated under FIFA’s own regulations.
While the data captured was enough to draw general conclusions about players’ experiences, FIFPRO was not able to survey all participating players at the tournament because some federations still do not have their own unions through which FIFPRO can communicate and distribute information.
One such federation is Nigeria, which was one of the teams to publicly raise concerns during the tournament regarding the ongoing lack of payments to players from 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 their own representative union body.
Nigeria are not the only playing group yet to receive their mandated World Cup prize money directly from FIFA, though FIFPRO confirmed that majority of players who participated in the 2023 tournament have now been paid, with FIFA actively negotiating with the remaining federations to guarantee distribution.
How much the players ended up receiving, however, has been a problem all on its own. Australia’s high income tax regulations mean that players who competed in Australia received less overall 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 get the withholding tax rate reduced from 45 per cent to 32.5 per cent for players, FIFPRO conceded that navigating international tax regulations in this context was “new territory” for both bodies due to the introduction of their new direct-to-player payment scheme.
In light of this unequal — if unforeseen — distribution of prize money, the global union suggested that tax rates could or should be considered when awarding future World Cup and other major tournament hosting rights to ensure equal support is provided by FIFA and its confederations.
This is particularly important in women’s football where, despite the rapid improvements to the top end of the game, one in three players who took part in this year’s World Cup still earn less than $30,000 a year from football, while one in five needs to work second jobs in order to make ends meet.
“I think it has to be a consideration, particularly when there are such differences in the way that things like prize money or income would be taxed,” Gregorius said.
“Ordinarily, in the past, I don’t think it’s been a consideration: even when I think back to where a union has negotiated as part of their CBA a percentage of prize money, a country withholding that much tax was never really considered as part of it.
“But we’ve set a new norm.
“I would think now, in considering the next hosts of any major tournament where prize money distribution is going to be part of that conversation, this is the type of thing that will now need to be looked into.”