FIFA launches Female Health and Performance Project

FIFA has launched a major global initiative to address a significant gap in sports science by providing female football players, coaches, and medical professionals with educational resources tailored specifically to women's health and physiology. The governing body announced the rollout of its Female Health and Performance Project on June 1, introducing an online platform with 30 educational modules across 13 topics.

The program is designed to be accessible to all 211 FIFA member associations, offering resources for everyone from young players and parents to elite coaches and medical staff. The topics covered include core performance areas like nutrition, sleep, strength training, and recovery, as well as subjects historically overlooked in sports environments, such as menstrual health, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, fertility, menopause, and pelvic health.

The initiative responds to a well-documented lack of female-specific research in sports science. FIFA officials cited an analysis of over 5,000 sports science studies published between 2014 and 2020, which found that only 34 percent of participants were female and a mere 6 percent of studies focused exclusively on women....