Almost half of female footballers are considering retiring early, survey shows

Nearly half of female footballers are considering leaving the game early, with financial pressures and mental health struggles the main reasons, according to a Fifpro report highlighting the gulf between the sport’s rapid growth and conditions for most ⁠players.

The 2026 Fifpro global employment report “Working ⁠Conditions in Women’s Football”, billed by ​the global players’ union as the most extensive review of working conditions in the women’s game in a decade, interviewed 800 players and found stark disparities.

Among the players surveyed, 49% said they were considering leaving football earlier than planned. Of ⁠those, 59% cited their financial situation as a reason and 46% pointed to psychological stress.

“The women’s football industry has come a long way,” Fifpro’s director of women’s football, Alex Culvin, said. “[But] for 95% [of players], the rest of the industry, there is a hell of a long way to ⁠go.“

While inflation-adjusted average monthly club wages have tripled since Fifpro’s previous global study in 2017 to $2,601 (£1,966), the median is substantially lower at $1,669 (£1,261), illustrating what the report describes as “uneven and fragmented” growth.

In ​10 eastern European countries analysed, average salaries remain below the national minimum wage. Even ‌in western Europe and Asia/Oceania, which include some ‌of the game’s bigger markets, average pay is not significantly higher than national minimum wages, according to Fifpro.

The report found 56% of players have an employment contract, 13% receive a club pension and 47% said their clubs did not have sufficient staff.

Average contract length has risen from 12 months in 2017 to 19 months, and the proportion of players with agents has climbed sharply from 14% to 41%.

“There is a recurring theme of precarity and fragile conditions,” Culvin said. “Not only in terms of treatment and fair ​remuneration, but also just generally the expectations that are put on these players, professional expectations that don’t operate in professional circumstances because the conditions that are provided to them are suboptimal.”

Mental health emerged as another significant concern, with 57% of players saying they had struggled with their mental health. Half those players said they had not been provided with support by their clubs.

Fifpro is calling for enforceable minimum standards covering areas including pay, facilities, staffing and healthcare to be written into employment agreements at national level. Only eight of the 30 national women’s leagues analysed have a collective agreement ⁠with players through their unions. Fifpro wants psychological support to be mandatory.

One ​area in which Fifpro said regulation had produced clear progress was maternity protection. Since Fifa introduced global minimum maternity standards in 2021, ​the proportion of players considering leaving football ‌to have a family has ​fallen to 19%, compared with 47% in ​2017.