Mon, October 12, 2026
Women footballers most likely to consider retiring early due to financial and mental health reasons
Women football players are most likely to consider retiring early due to financial and mental health issues, with employment standards failing to keep pace with a boom in certain areas, as reported by global players’ union, FIFPRO.
FIFPRO’s latest study, “The 2026 FIFPRO Global Employment Report: Working Conditions in Women’s Football,” is the most extensive review of women’s football conditions since 2017 and included around 800 players worldwide.
FIFPRO Director of Women’s Football, Alex Culvin, voiced “The professionalisation of women’s football is accelerating in some parts of the world and, as our report highlights, revenues are increasing, however, the progress and benefits are not evenly distributed among players across the world…Away from the best resourced clubs, there is a recurring theme of precarity and fragile conditions.”
Due to greater revenue, the average monthly salary has tripled to $2,601, but the median monthly salary is $1,669. Therefore, growth is “uneven and fragmented…
Even in regions such as Western Europe and Asia/Oceania which span some bigger football markets, average pay is not significantly higher than national minimum wage levels.”
In the USA and Mexico, the average salary for players has notably risen, but in 10 Eastern European countries, the average salary is below national minimum wage.
The average global contract is now 19 months, compared to 12 months a decade prior. 41% of players have an agent in comparison to 14% in 2017. But overall, only 56% of players have an official employment contract, and only 13% receive a pension from their clubs. Many state that clubs are understaffed too.
“Whether a player has a written contract, a pension, medical cover or parental leave often depends less on her ability than the country she lives in and the club she plays for…
There is also an imbalance in conditions, not only across the globe but also within regions; in Europe, for example, the difference in standards between the east and west is enormous.”
49% of players stated they are considering retiring early, of that group of players, 59% cited financial reasons and 46% cited stress.
Culvin stated that minimum standards should be written into players’ employment contracts at national level to cover play, facilities, staffing and health. “Only 8 of 30 national women’s football leagues analysed in the report have a collective agreement with players through their unions about employment conditions.”
Culvin also says that all clubs need to align with the National Women’s Super League (NWSL), the top-tier women's professional soccer/football league in the United States, where mental health practitioners work alongside staff at all clubs, and players are entitled to 6 months mental health leave.
57% of the women involved in the survey have experienced mental health issues and half of these women were reportedly not supported by their clubs. Players say the sport's growth brings new pressures – including extra workload and social media abuse - but that clubs do not have the necessary safeguards in place to support these changes.
In more positive news, FIFPRO’s work to introduce maternity regulations for players, which were implemented by FIFA in 2021, has meant that since 2017, the percentage of players who consider leaving their sport to start a family has fallen from 47 to 19%.
Regarding Chelsea and Spain’s football federation introducing policies funding egg freezing and other fertility treatment, Culvin stated that although this is progressive, players must have the freedom to choose without pressure to delay motherhood and that such initiatives should sit alongside maternity protections that allow players to have children during their careers.
“When players have working conditions that protect their health at work that has a positive effect on performance which the whole industry benefits from.”
The full report can be found here.
