Fri, December 12, 2025
FIFPRO study finds playing-time gap between top and lower-ranked women’s teams is increasing injury risks on both sides
Research by FIFPRO, the International Federation of Professional Footballers, has drawn attention to a “two-tier ecosystem” within women’s football where top team players have overloaded schedules whereas those lower down the rankings are facing “underload,” which is increasing injury risks for both sides.
On the one hand, too much is expected from elite players from top clubs due to packed schedules, but those who are not part of the top clubs and do not regularly compete internationally are facing “underload” where they are not playing enough.
FIFPRO’s study also shows that players from clubs in the same divisions across the 24-25 season had a notable variance in the number of minutes played. Regarding the Women’s Super League (WSL), for example, an average Arsenal first-team footballer played 13 more full matches’ worth of playing time compared to those players at Everton or Crystal Palace. Arsenal’s Mariona Caldentey and Emily Fox played around 5,000 competitive minutes, while three other Arsenal players played over 4000 competitive minutes. Crystal palace, who were relegated after the season ended, did not have a single athlete play 4000 minutes during the season.
The top 15 players that FIFPRO researched played in 50 or more matches during the 24-25 season, this is the first time this has occurred since monitoring started during the 20-21 season. The Club World Cup has also been proposed for 2028 which would place even more pressure on top players.
Spanish footballer, Aitana Bonmati, called for fewer teams to be included in Liga F, the highest level of league competition for women's football in Spain, after 57% of her 60 matches last season had less than five days in between them. Bonmati is now suffering with a broken leg and will be out for months. However, even within the Spanish teams there is variance, players from FC Badalona averaged 16 fewer matches than Barcelona.
Conversely, in Germany and France’s top leagues, only 14 matches are played across all competitions on average, which equates to around one and a half games per month within a season. Clubs that are not part of the Champions League are particularly facing underload.
Alex Culvin, FIFPRO's Director of Women's Football, told reporters: “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…
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.”
Maitane Lopez, a Spanish international who plays for Chicago Stars, told Reuters: “They don't have the same conditions - not even close - to the men's side…
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.”
Additionally, EURO prize money increased significantly, from around 16 million EUR in 2022 to 41 million EUR in 2025, but other tournaments saw limited growth and still sit far below the men’s game.
