FIFPRO PLAYER WORKLOAD MONITORING REPORT 2025
“Precarious Workload in Global Professional Women’s Football”
Author: FIFPRO World Players’ Union 2025
Website: fifpro.org
AI generated summary
The 2025 FIFPRO PWM Women’s Annual Report presents a detailed and data-rich analysis of the global state of player workload in women’s football. It reveals a sport experiencing rapid growth at the elite level, while simultaneously exposing deep structural inequalities in match access, competitive opportunities, recovery conditions, and investment across continents. The report identifies two core and opposing workload crises:
- Overload at the top — a small group of elite players face excessive match volume, travel, and insufficient recovery.
- Underload for the majority — most professional women’s players still lack sufficient competitive minutes to develop, progress, and maintain optimal performance standards.
Together, these dynamics portray a women’s football ecosystem fragmented by geography, infrastructure, and investment.
1️⃣ A Fragmented Global Football Ecosystem
The opening section highlights the widening disparity between well-resourced leagues/clubs and regions with minimal infrastructure. Players in top European leagues, major U.S. and Mexican clubs, and select South American clubs enjoy dense competitive calendars. Meanwhile, huge portions of the global player population still operate with:
- limited professional standards
- inconsistent domestic calendars
- low-quality facilities and medical support
- few opportunities to compete at international level
This fragmentation directly affects player welfare, career longevity, and development.
2️⃣ Key Findings from the Report
A. Increasing Match Load at the Top
For the first time since 2020/21, the 15 highest-usage players recorded 50+ match appearances, driven heavily by international competitions. Aitana Bonmatí topped the list with 60 appearances and 4,851 minutes.
Many elite players also experienced extreme spikes of back-to-back matches (less than five days between games), limiting recovery and elevating injury risk—over 60% of games for some players fell into this category.
B. Underload Remains Systemic
Despite the expanding top tier, most players still experience underload, often playing fewer than 15 matches per year.
Examples:
- In Germany and France, many squad players average only 13–14 total matches per season, roughly 1.5 matches/month.
- Large sections of squads in most leagues register <500 competitive minutes per season.
This gap restricts development, degrades readiness for national team football, and increases injury vulnerability due to low chronic load.
C. Inconsistent International Tournament Investment
Prize money for UEFA Women’s EURO 2025 rose substantially (to €41M), reflecting rapid commercial development.
However:
- Other confederations saw limited or no comparable increases.
- Structural conditions and player welfare issues persisted in tournaments such as WAFCON and Copa América.
D. Lack of High-Quality Data
The report points out a chronic shortage of reliable, standardised data across many confederations, limiting global representation and obstructing informed decision-making.
3️⃣ Match Load, Travel Load & Player Case Studies
Aitana Bonmatí (Spain/FC Barcelona)
- 60 matches, 4,851 minutes
- 57% of matches were back-to-back
- Only 20 days off between EURO final and club preseason
Her season illustrates the upper extreme of match congestion facing world-class players. en_2025_pwm_womens-annual-report
Linda Caicedo (Colombia/Real Madrid)
- 55 matches, 4,577 minutes
- 62% back-to-back games
- Enormous national team involvement
- Only 12 days between Copa América final and club reporting
Her case highlights risks for young stars entering congested calendars early in their careers.
Travel Load – Extraordinary Demands for Some Regions
Australian national team players dominate long-haul travel burdens, with individual distances reaching 146,000–168,000 km per season.
Players travel economy with multiple layovers, exposing them to fatigue and compromised recovery.
4️⃣ Squad Utilisation and Club-Level Inequality
Analysis of eight top clubs across regions (Barcelona, Arsenal, Gotham FC, Tigres, Corinthians, etc.) shows:
- Clubs with long continental campaigns (Barcelona, Arsenal, Tigres) have players surpassing 3,000–4,000 minutes.
- Clubs in leagues with fewer fixtures (e.g., Santa Fe, Melbourne City, Wuhan) show much lower average minutes and wider rotation.
- The most extreme imbalance: Tigres UANL had players with 4,000+ minutes, while Santa Fe averaged ~1,200 minutes per player.
Underload is intensified by:
- small league sizes
- short domestic seasons
- absence of domestic cups
- lack of international competitions
5️⃣ In Focus: Underload Analysis Across Europe
A major chapter explores underload in top five leagues (England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain):
Key structural findings:
- League size matters:
Liga F (Spain)—16 teams, 30 rounds → players accumulate much higher minutes
Bundesliga (Germany)—12 teams, 22 rounds → players accumulate far fewer minutes - International exposure shapes inequality:
Players at Champions League clubs recorded 71% more minutes and nearly 300% more national team minutes than players at clubs without international competitions. - Extreme intra-league gaps:
Arsenal players averaged ~13 full matches more than Crystal Palace players (a 75% difference).
Juventus players recorded nearly double the minutes of Sampdoria players.
The report argues strongly that underload is as harmful as overload, restricting talent development and widening competitive disparities.
6️⃣ UEFA EURO 2025 Analysis
The EURO remains the benchmark global competition for women’s national teams, with:
- Record prize money (€41M)
- Highest ever attendance (average 21,203)
- Enhanced club compensation and player participation mechanisms
Key findings:
A. Player Mobility Is Increasing Rapidly
Across EURO 2025 squads, 61% of players now compete abroad, up from 34% in 2017.
This trend reflects the clustering of high-performance environments in England, Spain, Germany, and France.
Some nations (e.g., Wales, Finland) rely almost entirely on players developed abroad.
B. Pre-Tournament Match Load Differences Are Enormous
Spain and England players accumulated the most competitive minutes (~77,000 and ~61,000 combined minutes). Nations like Poland and Wales recorded far fewer minutes due to weaker domestic structures.
C. Match Experience Distribution Within Squads
Top nations had almost entire squads making 30+ appearances in the prior year.
Lower-tier nations had many players with <10 appearances, indicating severe underload.
7️⃣ CAF WAFCON, CONMEBOL Copa América & OFC Nations Cup
Other continental championships show:
- Persistent infrastructural issues, including inadequate venues, scheduling issues, and limited prize money.
- Growing but uneven professionalisation, with some nations rising due to stronger domestic leagues (e.g., Colombia, Brazil).
- Significant international migration, as many players rely on foreign leagues for high-level competition.
8️⃣ Structural Recommendations From the Report
FIFPRO calls for:
1. A more balanced global match calendar
Reducing extreme peaks for top players and increasing meaningful matches for underloaded players.
2. Expansion of domestic leagues
Increasing the number of teams and matches to provide consistent minutes.
3. Reform of domestic cup structures
Creating more competitive fixtures below the elite level.
4. Improved travel standards
Business-class flights and reduced layovers, especially for long-haul national team players.
5. Greater investment and data transparency
High-quality data is essential to drive policy, safeguard players, and monitor growth globally.
🔶 Overall Conclusion
The report paints a vivid picture of a global women’s football landscape in transition:
- At the top, we see players experiencing unprecedented physical demands, insufficient rest, and extreme travel burdens.
- At the base, the majority of professional players face chronic underload, limited development pathways, and minimal competitive opportunities.
This two-tier system threatens the sustainability of the sport unless addressed through coordinated investment, competition reform, and the creation of balanced football calendars.
Women’s football is growing—but not evenly. Closing the gap is essential for player welfare, competitive balance, and long-term global development.
