FIFPRO report highlights workload imbalance problem in women's game

Dec 12 - Women's soccer is grappling with a peculiar problem where elite players are burning out from packed schedules whereas others are struggling with too few matches, creating injury risks at both ends of the spectrum.

A new FIFPRO report on women's player workload monitoring released on Friday revealed that match loads are surging at the soccer ‍pyramid's peak, ​with top players juggling more games for club and country while getting less recovery time.

However, the ‍flip side presents an equally troubling picture where domestic leagues with insufficient fixtures are failing players through "underload".

"We talk a lot about the players who are exposed to a high workload and ​that's primarily because ​they are the highest profile players. We need to keep them fit because they're what people want to watch," Alex Culvin, FIFPRO's director of women's football, told reporters.

"But at the opposite end of the spectrum, the players who are underloaded are at risk -- if not more at risk -- for injury.

"There was ‍a study done and it said if players are playing less than 25 games a season, they're more likely to be at risk for certain types ​of injury."

STARK DISPARITIES IN ELITE LEAGUES

FIFPRO's research uncovered stark disparities even within ⁠elite competitions among the top divisions in Europe.

In Germany and France's top leagues, players manage no more than 14 matches across all competitions on average, which translates to roughly one-and-a-half games a month during the season.

England's Women's Super League also illustrated the development gap where an Arsenal first-team player accumulated 13 more full matches worth of playing time than their second-tier Crystal Palace ​counterpart.

This lack of meaningful match time creates a vicious cycle, FIFPRO found, with players falling behind in match readiness and losing national team selection opportunities, widening the development chasm.

"They need competition ‌time, underload is a reality," said Maitane Lopez, a Spain international who ​plays for Chicago Stars.

"All these young players don't have enough time to develop."

ELITE OVERLOAD PROBLEM

At the other extreme sits Spain's Aitana Bonmati, whose hat-trick of Ballon d'Or wins in recent years also exemplified the elite overload problem.

The Barcelona midfielder's remarkable success came with a brutal schedule as she made 60 appearances last season, helping her club to a domestic league and cup double, a Champions League runner-up finish and a run to the Euros final with Spain.

However, the 27-year-old is now facing around five months out after undergoing surgery on a fractured left fibula sustained while training with Spain.

Culvin said even though players like Bonmati play for big clubs, the conditions to thrive ‍are not the same as elite men's players who can afford to travel on charter flights and may have their own nutritionists, physios and ​gyms.

"These women players who are exposed to this high workload are still not playing in conditions that allow them to thrive, even at the biggest clubs in the world and even ​at the best national teams," Culvin said.

Lopez said the workload is rising faster than the systems that are designed ‌to protect the players.

"They don't have the same conditions -- not even close -- to the men's side," she said.

"For me, it would be (important) to invest more in everything around the players so they can fully rest and recover... Burnout is ‌a thing, mental health is really important." REUTERS