Time for a reboot: 64-game Caldentey shows women’s football conundrum
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A report from Fifpro has found that some players were playing too many games but most were not playing enough. The final whistle of Wednesday night’s Champions League fixtures marked the end of women’s football in England for 2024. A winter break over the festive period is well supported and much needed after four intense months, particularly for those competing in the Champions League, before an even more packed new year and summer, but are there downsides alongside the obvious positives?.
![[Suzanne Wrack]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/07/13/Suzanne_Wrack_2.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
A new report from Fifpro, the global players’ union, From High-Usage to Underload: A Tale of Two Industries, produced in conjunction with the analytics company Football Benchmark, calls for, among other things, the implementation of mandatory off-season breaks of four weeks and in-season breaks of two weeks.
![[Steph Catley]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/62bb781f6ff416ce1488762e039833131e1aa9a2/0_115_3440_2064/master/3440.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
For four years, Fifpro has monitored the number of games and minutes played by players competing around the world. This year’s study looked at 300 players. From next season, every player in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States and Women’s Super League (WSL) in England will be included in the report as the pool from which data is gathered is expanded.
The conclusion is unsurprising for anyone who has knowledge of the issues raised over the international calendar. Quite simply, some players are playing a lot of games, but most are not playing enough. It is a problem which is exacerbated by uneven development across continents, with new competitions emerging in Europe and North America rather than South America, Africa or Oceania, of different competition sizes and of teams going further in competitions than others.
