Women’s soccer players often have too many games or not enough, players’ union says

HOOFDDORP, Netherlands (AP) — Some elite-level women’s soccer players are dealing with a packed schedule even as others don’t have enough games to play, global players’ union FIFPRO said Tuesday.

FIFPRO’s study highlighted a disproportionately heavy workload for a few players like Mariona Caldentey, who played 64 times for Barcelona and Spain last season as Barcelona played four different competitions and won them all. Caldentey now plays for Arsenal in England.

However, FIFPRO also pointed out that many players had barely half that number of games — just 33 games per season was the average per player.

FIFPRO said its study showed the impact of “new or expanded competitions in a few countries, notably in Europe and North America, and little or no development elsewhere.” More top-level competitions like a women’s Club World Cup are in development.

While attention has previously focused on the impact of overloaded schedules on players, especially in terms of injury as women’s soccer gets a higher public profile and competitions expand, FIFPRO is also raising concerns about “underload.”

Some players who made their countries’ Olympic teams in Paris this year had played fewer than 10 games in the year leading up to the Games, FIFPRO said.

“There is a two-speed development of women’s football,” Alex Culvin, FIFPRO’s director of policy and strategic relations for women’s football, said in a statement. “There are players who are squeezed by the calendar and the high cadence of games; this is an issue that is rightly gaining more attention. Yet there are a larger proportion of players who do not have enough competitive matches and are often overlooked.”

Culvin called for “a more balanced calendar” that creates more opportunities to compete but also guarantees rest.

The study comes at a time when FIFPRO is also pressuring FIFA with its involvement in legal challenges to events that would expand the men’s soccer calendar. Some leading men’s players have talked of considering strike action if their schedules get any busier.

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