Women’s teams participating in FIFA tournaments are now required to have a female head coach or assistant coach on the bench due to new regulations introduced by the governing body of the sport.
The FIFA Council sanctioned this regulation on Thursday, and it is effective immediately in advance of the under-17 and U20 Women’s World Cups, as well as the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup. In total, teams are mandated to include a minimum of two female staff members in their support teams, with one of them needing to serve as either the head coach or assistant coach.
This directive is applicable to all of FIFA’s youth and senior women’s football tournaments, national team events, and club competitions.
“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,” stated FIFA chief football officer Jill Ellis.
“The new FIFA regulations, along with targeted development programs, represent a significant investment in both the current and future generations of female coaches.”
This initiative aims to boost the number of women coaches, with FIFA indicating that it is part of their “long-term strategy, which combines statutory advancements with ongoing investment in coach education and professional development, to prepare women for such leadership roles.”
At the 2023 World Cup, only 12 out of the 32 head coaches were women.
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“Of course we need more women in important positions in football,” remarked FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the UEFA Congress in February. “
“So, we should support, of course, more women in football positions and more women generally. Maybe we need … more women coaches in women’s teams.
“This is another discussion that we will need to have at some point because we’ve seen that there are excellent coaches. We observed it at the last European Championship, how women’s football is thriving, how women’s football is progressing.”
