FIFA has launched a new education project aimed at improving health, performance and support for female footballers.
The FIFA Female Health and Performance Project provides science-based information designed around the specific needs of female athletes.
The online resource includes 30 modules across 13 topics, with information for players, coaches, support staff, Member Associations and the wider public.
FIFA says the project is intended to help close a long-standing knowledge gap in sport science, where training methods, recovery systems and performance programmes have often been based on research conducted on men.
A study of 5,261 sport and exercise science research articles published between 2014 and 2020 found only 34% of participants were female, while just 6% of sport science research focused only on women.
That has meant many female athletes have trained and recovered using systems that did not fully reflect their physiology, potentially limiting performance gains and increasing injury risk.
FIFA says the new project will give all 211 Member Associations access to peer-reviewed information through the FIFA Training Centre.
The launch follows a pilot project before the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, where 10 national teams received specialist support.
FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman says the project is about improving support for women and girls at every level of the game.
“FIFA’s aim is to optimise every female footballer’s health, well-being and performance, and to improve knowledge around women and girls in football at every level of the game,” Bareman said.
“Collectively, we can do so much more to better support our growing number of female players and ensure they are trained, supported and understood according to their specific needs as women.”
The modules cover general performance topics, including sleep, recovery, nutrition, strength and conditioning, injury prevention, screening and profiling.
They also cover female-specific topics such as physiology, menstrual health tracking, pregnancy and postpartum, fertility, pelvic health and menopause.
The information is offered across four levels, from introductory content through to integrated specialist knowledge.
Bareman says the project also aims to make conversations about female health more normal within football environments.
“We need to normalise conversations around female health and embrace this, using it to our advantage instead of ignoring it or being fearful of discussing it,” she said.
“It is not a weakness; it is a strength.”
The FIFA Female Health and Performance Project is available to all through the FIFA Training Centre.
FIFA’s Female Health and Performance Project covers the following topics, across all four knowledge levels:
Female physiology
Reproductive years
Menstrual health tracking
Pregnancy and postpartum
Fertility
Menopause
Pelvic health
Nutrition
Recovery
Sleep
Strength and conditioning
Screening and profiling
Injury and injury prevention
This story was first published on June 5, 2026.