FIFA has approved new regulations requiring every team competing in its women’s tournaments to have at least one female coach on the bench, a move the governing body says is designed to address the persistent underrepresentation of women in football’s technical and leadership roles.
The FIFA Council passed the legislation on Thursday, March 19, 2026, and it will take effect immediately across all FIFA women’s competitions, from youth tournaments to senior showpieces. The rule applies to national team competitions and club competitions alike.
What the Rules Require
Under the new regulations, each team participating in a FIFA women’s competition must ensure that either their head coach or at least one of their assistant coaches is female. Beyond the coaching staff, teams must also have at least one female member among their medical staff, and at least two female officials seated on the team bench at any given time.
The requirements cover the full range of FIFA women’s football, including youth tournaments and the biggest prize in the sport. The first competitions to fall under these rules will be the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland in September 2026, followed by the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup and the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, both also scheduled for this year. The regulation will also be in force at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027 in Brazil.
The Numbers Behind the Decision
The case for the new rules is rooted in a straightforward statistical reality. At the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia in 2023, only 12 of the 32 head coaches were women.
Among those 12, England’s Sarina Wiegman was the only female head coach to survive the round of 16, eventually guiding the Lionesses to a runner-up finish behind Spain.
The broader picture across the sport is even starker. A FIFA Member Associations Survey conducted in 2023 found that women made up an average of just five percent of coaches across its member associations, counting coaches of both male and female teams.
A separate FIFA benchmarking report published in 2024, which surveyed 86 women’s leagues worldwide, found that only 22 percent of head coaches in those leagues were female. For a sport whose women’s game has seen significant commercial and competitive growth over the past decade, the coaching pipeline has not kept pace.
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FIFA’s Stated Rationale
FIFA’s Chief Football Officer Jill Ellis, who won two Women’s World Cup titles as head coach of the United States national team, was direct in her assessment of the current situation.
“There are simply not enough women in coaching today,” she said. “We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities, and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines.”
Ellis framed the new regulations not as a standalone fix but as part of a broader effort that combines rule changes with investment in coach development.
“The new FIFA regulations, combined with targeted development programmes, mark an important investment in both the current and future generation of female coaches,” she added.
The governing body has positioned the decision within its global Women’s Football Strategy, describing it as an attempt to ensure that the rapid growth of the women’s game is matched by an equivalent rise in women holding positions of technical authority.
Investment in Coaching Pathways
The regulations arrive alongside a set of existing programmes that FIFA says it has been building for several years. Since 2021, FIFA has supported 795 female coaches across 73 member associations through its coach education scholarship programme, providing access to advanced coaching qualifications and professional opportunities.
A mentorship programme targeting elite performance, now in its third edition after launching its latest cohort in 2025, pairs 20 experienced high-performance coaches with emerging female coaches around the world.
FIFA has also developed a Female Coach Educators’ Development Pathway, aimed at expanding the pool of qualified instructors who can train and mentor women entering the coaching profession at all levels.
At club level, FIFA has tied a coaching investment initiative to the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup 2026. Clubs competing in the Women’s Super League 1 and 2 have been provided with scholarships enabling women to obtain their UEFA Pro or A Licence, the highest coaching qualifications available in European football.
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A Structural Shift, Not Just a Quota
The regulation has been described by FIFA as a statutory advance rather than simply a numbers exercise. The intention is to use the requirement as a mechanism for creating demand for qualified female coaches at the highest level, which in turn is expected to encourage more women to pursue coaching careers and more associations to invest in their development.
That logic reflects a debate that has been present in football for some time. At the UEFA Congress in February 2026, FIFA president Gianni Infantino acknowledged the issue publicly.
“Of course we need more women in important positions in football,” he said. “We should support more women in football positions and more women generally. Maybe we need more women coaches in women’s teams.”
He noted the standard set by coaches visible at recent major tournaments as evidence that the talent exists. The new regulation is intended to move that conversation from aspiration to obligation.
What Comes Next
With the Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland serving as the first test case in September 2026, the regulation will be put into practice relatively quickly.
Teams that have not previously employed a female coach at the senior or youth level will need to adjust their structures before the tournaments begin.
Whether the rule produces lasting change will depend in part on how associations respond in the years ahead, and whether the investment in coach education translates into a larger qualified workforce ready to fill those roles at the top of the game. For now, the mandate is in place, and the clock is running.
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