Tag: prize money

The global players’ union FIFPro has called on FIFA and its six member confederations to drastically improve the conditions, compensation and medical care for all players competing in future Women’s World Cup qualifiers after a new report found myriad problems with the path towards the 2023 tournament.

Compiled over a two-year period, the inaugural report surveyed 362 players who took part in World Cup qualifiers, focusing on both the global perspective as well as the specific contexts of each confederation: the OFC (Oceania), AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), UEFA (Europe), CONMEBOL (South America), and CONCACAF (North & Central America and the Caribbean).

Through anonymised online and in-person surveys, they were asked about various aspects of their experiences including travel and accommodation, pre-tournament health checks, pitch quality, recovery facilities, food, mental health support, match scheduling and payment.

The report found various qualifying paths fell short of minimum standards in many categories, with “multiple inconsistencies in the scheduling, duration, format and conditions between tournaments”. 

Sixty-six per cent of respondents said they had to take unpaid leave from other jobs in order to participate in their respective confederation competitions, which also double as qualifying pathways for World Cups and Olympic Games, with almost one-third saying they had not been paid to play at all.

Only 40 per cent of those surveyed said they viewed themselves as “professional” players, defined by FIFA as anyone who has a written contract with a club and is paid more for football than the expenses they incur.

Thirty-five per cent of players identified as amateur, 16 per cent as semi-professional, while nine were uncertain of their status.

In every confederation, match payment and prize money were two of the biggest issues of the qualifying phases, with the vast majority of respondents saying payment needed significant improvement.

Last week, players from the World Cup-bound Jamaican women’s national team posted public statements saying a lack of investment had led to abandoned camps and missed compensation.

“We are not financially supported enough,” said an anonymous UEFA player.

“Some of our girls had to take unpaid vacation at work and it wasn’t sure if they can even attend the tournament.”

Over half the players surveyed were not provided with pre-tournament medical checks, while 70 per cent were not given ECG heart-health checks.

“Any stat that is below 100 per cent in terms of access to important medical checks is completely unacceptable,” said Sarah Gregorious, director of global policy and strategic relations for women’s football at FIFPro.

“We just want to work with whoever wants to work with us, particularly FIFA and the confederations, to understand why that is the case and how that can be prevented, because that is certainly not something that should be acceptable to anybody.”

Almost 40 per cent of players surveyed did not have access to mental health support, while one-third of those surveyed said there was insufficient recovery time between games, which was exacerbated by the sub-standard quality of training and match pitches, particularly outside of Europe.

Sixty-six per cent said recovery and gym facilities were not of an elite standard or did not exist at all, making it more difficult to recover from games as well as from international travel, with 59 per cent saying they flew economy — even over long distances.

Another major issue highlighted was inconsistent match scheduling.

Only UEFA has a stand-alone World Cup qualifying process separate from their continental championship, which affords players more high-quality matches and opportunities for remuneration, while the other five confederations rely on a single tournament for multiple purposes.

Some of those tournaments — like the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, in which Australia participates — are shorter in length (the 2022 tournament ran for just 18 days), and also operate outside designated FIFA windows, forcing players to choose between playing for club or country, with the tight turn-around between games also heightening risk of injury and fatigue.

One-third of players said they did not have enough recovery time between matches, with 34 per cent saying that had one rest day or fewer between arriving in camp and playing a qualifying match. Further, 39 per cent said they had one day or fewer between the end of the international window and resuming training at their clubs.

FIFPro has used the report to call on FIFA to have greater control and oversight over World Cup qualifying pathways, highlighting the need to implement global standards for player conditions in international tournaments, as well as for each confederation to conduct stand-alone qualifying tournaments outside of their continental championships.

The lack of domestic player unions in many federations — particularly those from less privileged confederations such as Oceania and Africa — had made organising and collective bargaining difficult, but ABC understands one suggestion is to establish a confederation-wide union membership system so that players can still be protected even if they don’t have their own country-specific union.