FIFA rules women’s teams must have a woman as head or assistant coach
Every women’s team will have to include at least two women as staff members on the bench — with one of them being either the head coach or assistant coach — as part of new regulations FIFA has agreed to introduce. This will be implemented at all women’s FIFA competitions, both at country and club level, effective immediately. The first tournament under the rule will be the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland in September.
The decision was taken at Thursday’s FIFA Council meeting and it comes after only 12 of the 32 head coaches at the 2023 Women’s World Cup were women. “There are simply not enough women in coaching today,” Jill Ellis, FIFA’s chief football officer, said in a press release on Thursday. “We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities, and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines.
“The new FIFA regulations, combined with targeted development programmes, mark an important investment in both the current and future generation of female coaches. ” If a women’s team was unable to meet the criteria for a particular reason, be it financial, then the expectation is that FIFA would step in to help. It is also worth nothing that a team would not have to sacrifice a male coach in order to make room for a female coach, although the new regulations will be stipulated in competition participant agreements, so it is a rule they will need to adhere to.
The landmark changes to the regulations follow on from Gianni Infantino, the world football governing body’s president, calling for more women to be in prominent roles in football. At UEFA’s congress in Brussels on February 12, Infantino used his platform to express his support for such changes. “We should support, of course, more women in football positions and more women generally,” Infantino said.
“Maybe we need, actually, as well, more women coaches in women’s teams. “This is another debate that we will have to have at some stage because we’ve seen that there are excellent coaches. “We have seen it at the last European Championship, the fantastic European Championship in Switzerland, how women’s football is healthy, how women’s football is growing.