Europe lagging behind
February 12, 2015
Using data provided by 177 of its 209 Member Associations, world football's governing body found that the USA and Canada employed proportionately more staff - one in five - than any other region to run its women's football programs.
The associations aligned to UEFA, however, came out second worst in the FIFA survey after South America (CONMEBOL), with only eight percent of staff members across its associations working exclusively on women's football.
In addition, only half (52 percent) of the UEFA women's football staff were employed full-time, against 95 percent in USA and Canada - which both fall under the CONCACAF region but were measured separately for the survey.
Germany leading the way in Europe
Germany – who's national team currently occupies top position in the FIFA women's world rankings ahead of USA – fared better on its own in a recent UEFA report for 2014-15. It had 21 dedicated staff in place for women's football - well above the UEFA association average number of 9.6 revealed by FIFA on Wednesday.
By comparison, the federations in USA and Canada have 41 people employed in total in women's football.
And while FIFA put the total number of registered female football players worldwide at 4.8 million. Almost half of these (2.26 million) were playing in the USA and Canada. UEFA's federations weighed in with just under 2.1 million female footballers.
In Germany alone, there are 258,000 female players registered to 5,855 clubs, according to the latest data from UEFA.
Lack of female functionaries too
Although FIFA first addressed the imbalance on its own executive committee by appointing a female member and co-opting two others in May 2013, worldwide its survey found that only eight per cent of national executive committee members were women.
In Europe, the figure was even lower at six percent but in USA and Canada it was 19 percent – over twice the global average.
Germany may have lost only one World Cup match since 1999 and won back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2007, but the next edition in June could show not if, but by how much, they have fallen behind the USA in off-field investment.