While there are now 30 million women footballers across the globe, only one in four (23 per cent)

FIFA member associations have dedicated staff working on women’s football.

The figures come from the FIFA Women’s Football Survey, conducted on 177 FIFA Member Associations (MA) during 2014 with the aim of gathering information on key areas related to women’s football.

The main findings show that:

• Overall, only 10 per cent of all employees across football governing bodies are dedicated to women’s football. The highest number and percentage of staff dedicated to women’s football is in the United States and Canada – where 20 per cent of staff are working within the women’s game.

• The 177 MAs that took part in the survey invest a total of US$156m per year in women’s football.

• While 80 per cent of countries have a senior women’s elite team, only half (50 per cent) have youth teams.

In its conclusion, FIFA states that the women’s game is growing and needs more support from member associations – particularly when growing the game’s grassroots.

“For all member associations, the development of grassroots programmes should be a priority,” the report reads.

“Indeed, in only four out of ten member associations do training programmes exist which are focused on registered or non-registered female players under 12 years of age. No significant differences were observed according to the size of the association or their FIFA ranking.

To download and read the full report, click here.

Survey background:

• The report was produced by the CIES Football Observatory using data collected by FIFA via an online survey.