Fifpro: Women's Football Boom Leaves Players Behind — SkimNews
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- Fifpro's global survey of more than 800 women players found 59% considering leaving the game cite financial reasons and 46% cite psychological stress, even as women's football revenue is projected to rise from $581m in 2024 to over $1bn by 2027.
- Alex Culvin, Fifpro's head of women's football, said 57% of respondents struggled with mental health but half received no club support, pointing to growing public exposure, financial insecurity and inadequate support systems as contributing factors.
- The Fifpro report found mean monthly earnings have tripled since 2017 to $2,601, but the median is just $1,669, with pay ranging from $6,450 in North America and $3,982 in central/Western Europe to just $480 in Africa.
- Only 57% of top-tier women players said their payment covered the costs of playing, and in 10 Eastern European countries average pay remains below the national minimum wage despite competing in the top flight.
- Average contract lengths rose from about one year in 2017 to 19 months, but only two-thirds of players are paid all 12 months; 24% experienced late payments over the past two seasons and 42% were not offered a pension.
- Fifpro credits Fifa's 2021 maternity regulations for cutting the share of women leaving the game because they want a family from nearly half in 2017 to 19%, calling it proof that "targeted regulatory intervention works."
Why it matters: As women's football races toward a $1bn market by 2027, most players — especially outside North America and Western Europe — still earn below minimum wage and lack protections like pensions and year-round pay. Culvin's call for a 'wake-up call' frames this as the moment to reform institutional safeguards before commercialization locks in inequities that the maternity-regulation data proves are fixable.
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