What women coaches think of FIFA’s new quota rule: ‘It needs to give someone a real chance to work’
Mariana Cabral can reel off the list with little fuss: Sarina Wiegman, Emma Hayes, Renee Slegers, Sonia Bompastor. Women who have lifted major trophies as head coaches in the past two years. “It’s not like women aren’t good,” the Chicago Stars assistant manager says.
“But right now, they have to be, because they’re the exception to the rule. They made it. She adds that women are not afforded the same space to make mistakes and learn as their male counterparts.
“Gender does not determine the competence of a person,” says Cabral. “I hope we can all agree on that. But because men are so overly represented in this situation, we need to help the women get into these positions.
” Of the National Women’s Soccer League’s 16 head coaches, just four are women. It is the same number in the 12-team Women’s Super League. At the club level globally, only 22 per cent of coaches are female.
At the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2023, just 38 per cent (12 of 32) of head coaches were women; six teams did not employ any female coaches; and only nine of those teams have women employed as head coaches today. According to the 2023 FIFA Member Association Survey, female coaches accounted for just five per cent of all registered coaches worldwide. Last summer’s European Championship had a record seven of the 16 qualified teams led by women, but there is still ongoing systemic underrepresentation in top coaching positions.
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