Sport: FIFA guide boosts women’s football

Sports organise their activities through a series of rules and regulations, bringing an orderly structure to how members and participants interact and engage. A growing trend across sports is to adopt licensing regimes, whether it be for agents (intermediaries), coaches, or clubs. The requirement to obtain and maintain a licence provides an active regime in which standards can be raised, monitored, maintained and enforced. 

FIFA has published its first ever Guide to Club Licensing in Women’s Football. This guide bolsters FIFA’s commitment under goal 8 of its 2020-23 vision to accelerate the growth of women’s football, which FIFA acclaims as one of its top priorities.

What is club licensing?

Club licensing in football is a development and control tool that associations can use to raise standards in the key strategic areas of football club operation such as sporting, infrastructure, administration, legal and finance. It is a set of criteria that clubs must meet to receive a licence and be permitted to participate in specific competitions. Chief women’s football officer at FIFA, Sarai Bareman, said that “strong and sustainable leagues where players are in a competitive professional environment” was a key area for future development of women’s football. This guide complements earlier FIFA guidance to the 211 member associations.

The guide

The guide is intended to be a “comprehensive, yet practical” tool to support member associations with implementing club licensing for women’s football on solid, customised foundations to enhance long-term growth and stability, and improve pathways for women and girls. It can be used either to improve an existing system, or to create and introduce a new system. It sets out key steps that a member association or competition organiser should consider, divided into two sections: (1) a 10-step guide for setting up a system; and (2) an eight-step guide for implementing a system.

Part 1: set up the system

For setting up a system, the 10-step guide covers everything from the preliminary steps of establishing a budget and “understanding the reality” of the clubs, to hiring individuals and approving regulations. Each step includes comprehensive guidance as to what a member association is required to do, including an actionable “task list” as well as helpful examples and explanations at each stage.

Part 2: implement the system

The eight-step guide is intended to be used on a per-season basis to ensure the system is properly implemented by member associations. Again, the steps are comprehensive, from implementation budgets all the way to organising and holding development workshops with stakeholders. It covers the roles of each of the individuals who should have been appointed at setup and what their continuing obligations should be in order for the system to work to its full effect. The guide culminates with a “big picture timeline” accompanied by detailed setup and implementation timelines and checklists. 

The step-by-step guidance and handy checklists aim to leave member associations in no doubt as to how to properly implement club licensing in women’s football. With most sports operating on the basis of majority rule, adopting new rules, regulations and licensing regimes with the majority vote at an AGM or SGM, or sometimes where permitted by standing powers, typically the keenest question to be answered for a new licensing regime, is what lead time would be appropriate? The regime should not be introduced so swiftly that it cannot be met by members. A reasonable timeframe for a regime to be introduced and become mandatory is required. 

Developments in Scotland 

Raising overall standards and performance pathways is the goal of club licensing, and within the men’s game in Scotland there is no doubt that club licensing has successfully improved the game. The arrival of specific guidance for women’s football and FIFA’s focus on developing the women’s game are timely for further significant developments for the game in Scotland, with a majority of the Scottish Women’s Premier League clubs voting for elite women’s football to become the responsibility of the Scottish Professional Football League from season 2022-23. 

Discussing the changes, Scottish FA chief executive Ian Maxwell said that to take elite women’s clubs and competitions to the next level, there was a need to “optimise the game’s governance and structures”. Women’s football has grown exponentially in recent years, with UEFA on course to double the number of women and girls participating across Europe by 2024, while significantly increasing sponsorship revenue, television viewing figures and club competition prize money at the elite end. Under the SPFL, clubs will be invited to become members of a new two-tier league competition, as the SPFL seeks to improve the product on offer, increase commercial revenues, and provide better governance and support for participant clubs, which clubs in turn will, it is hoped, further promote the game across Scotland.