FIFA rules women’s teams must have female coaches or assistants
FIFA rules women’s teams must have female coaches or assistants FIFA have announced new measures for women’s football, mandating that teams must have at least one woman in a head coach or assistant coach role. The new regulations were approved this week by the FIFA Council, aiming to improve the representation of women in coaching roles in the long-term. From this year onwards, any team participating in FIFA women’s competitions must ensure that their head coach and/or at least one of the assistant coaches is female.
The changes apply to all youth and senior tournaments, national team competitions, and club competitions. They will debut at the Under-20 and Under-17 tournaments later this year, ahead of the Women’s World Cup in Brazil in 2027 and the second edition of the Women’s Champions Cup. At the last Women’s World Cup in 2023, only 12 of the 32 head coaches were female, including England’s Sarina Wiegman .
Other notable female national head coaches include the USA’s Emma Hayes, Norway’s Gemma Grainger and Canada’s Casey Stoney. “There are simply not enough women in coaching today,” said FIFA’s Chief Football Officer, Jill Ellis. “We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities, and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines.
” Last summer’s women’s Euros set a new tournament record with seven female head coaches, though this still represented fewer than half of the teams in the tournament. In the Women’s Super League , just four of the 12 teams are led by a female coach. The new regulations also stipulate that at least one of the medical staff is female and at least two officials seated on the team bench are female.
FIFA hopes that the new changes, alongside existing programmes like their coaching scholarship programme and Elite Performance mentoring programme, will help address the gender imbalance in technical roles.