Fifpro says players were placed at risk during Women’s World Cup qualifiers

Footballers were placed “at risk” during qualifying for next month’s Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand by a lack of medical support and substandard working conditions, according to the global players’ union.

A report by Fifpro involving responses from 362 internationals took an in-depth look at an often fragmented, and badly scheduled, qualification process and reached a damning conclusion.

“During qualification the conditions that the players are exposed to and expected to deliver in are not up to the standards of elite international football, putting both the players and the sport at risk,” said Fifpro in a scathing foreword to the first report of its kind in the women’s game. “Fifpro firmly calls on the industry to take a close look at the qualification processes in each of the six confederations.”

The investigation focused on the continental championships outside Europe which also served as World Cup qualifiers, and on Euro 2022. It found that about 40% of playersdid not regard themselves as professional, almost a third had not received payment from their national team and two-thirds had taken unpaid leave or holiday from alternative employment to play in the tournaments.

Given that just over 60 of the respondents competed in Euro 2022, staged in England last summer, Fifpro highlighted the finding that 70% of players surveyed had not received an ECG before the tournaments in question.

Such heart health checks are routine in the men’s game, as are wider medical examinations. However 54% of the female internationals who responded had not undergone a pre-tournament medical, while 39% said they had had no access to mental health support.

A growing fear of mental and physical burnout proved a reoccurring