Fifa rules that all women’s teams must have female coaches
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England manager Sarina Wiegman (right), pictured during a training session in February 2026, was one of 12 female coaches at the 2023 World Cup.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – Fifa decreed on March 19 that all women’s teams competing in world tournaments must have a woman head or assistant coach on the bench.
The rule, newly approved by the Fifa Council, applies to national and club competitions at the senior and youth levels, including the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil and the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland in September.
Along with the female head or assistant coach, the edict mandates the presence of at least one more female staff member on each team’s bench.
“There are simply not enough women in coaching today. We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines,” Fifa chief football officer Jill Ellis, the former United States women’s national team coach, said in a statement.
“The new Fifa regulations, combined with targeted development programmes, mark an important investment in both the current and future generation of female coaches.”
Another Fifa statement said the initiative is part of its broader strategy “to ensure that the rapid growth of the women’s game is matched by an increased representation of women in technical and leadership roles”.
Women coached 12 of 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup. Seven of those sides now field a male head coach and four nations previously coached by men now have a woman in the role, The Telegraph reported.
Six teams at that tournament, which Spain won with a 1-0 victory over England in the final, employed no female coaching staff, according to the news outlet.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino also addressed the subject at the Uefa Congress in Belgium in February.
“Of course we need more women in important positions in football,” Infantino said. “I’m a father – proud father, I should say – of four daughters, so we need to create job opportunities for all the women, but we can only learn, of course, from women.
“So we should support, of course, more women in football positions and more women generally. Maybe we need, actually, as well, more women coaches in women’s teams. This is another debate that we will have to have at some stage because we’ve seen that there are excellent coaches.” REUTERS, AFP
