‘Raising Our Game’: Lifting up women’s professional football
The report, compiled with KPMG Football Benchmark, charts the economic evolution of the game, covering match-day attendance, TV audiences and sponsorship, and details player conditions at club and national team level.
Raising Our Game calls for football stakeholders to work together with us and our 65 affiliated player associations to establish and enforce global standards for working conditions in order to achieve a strong, vibrant and sustainable women’s game.
The report was originally scheduled for publication in February 2020 but was postponed because of the outbreak of the coronavirus. FIFPRO has decided to publish the report now during the pandemic as employment standards remain as important as ever.
FIFPRO General Secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said: “We are conscious that we are releasing this report during an extremely uncertain and worrying time, however we have a responsibility to the professional footballers we represent to chart the way forward for them and their industry.
“We are committed to working with all stakeholders in a united and holistic way to relaunch the industry after the coronavirus pandemic. The professional players we represent and who devote so much time and energy to the women’s game, often with little reward or compensation, must be at the heart of this rebuilding process.”
The following are the primary objectives detailed in :
• Global minimum employment standards, which guarantee that professional players have appropriate contracts, compensation, workload, training and match environments, health and safety measures, freedom of association and access to remedy.
• Global minimum standards at international tournaments to ensure that players participating in elite global competitions—both club and national team—are protected and can perform at their peak, on an equal footing on the world stage.
• Collective bargaining as a universal industry standard so that professional players around the world have a fair say in the development of their sport.
• New global club and national-team competition formats and scheduling that permits professional players to enjoy a long and sustainable career.
As well as using the most recent data from clubs, leagues, sponsors and tournament organizers including FIFA and regional confederations, the report uses a survey with 186 female national-team players from 18 countries and a stakeholder survey to map out the best way forward.
The original article can be found here.
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