Would you look at that. FIFA did something good for a change | Opinion

For once, FIFA did something good. For the women’s game, no less.

The number of women coaches and female support staff is going to jump after FIFA mandated teams playing in any of its women’s tournaments have at least two women on their on-field staff. One of those must be either the head coach or an assistant.

“This is a great development for the women’s game,” Emma Hayes, coach of the U.S. women’s national team, told USA TODAY Sports through U.S. Soccer.

“I can think of so many female coaches across the women’s game that deserve the opportunity to lead or be a part of a high-level coaching staff and this will assist in providing more of those opportunities,” added Hayes, a vocal proponent of getting more women in leadership roles.

“It’s an amazing day for women’s football.”

And maybe, just maybe, it’ll spur progress beyond that.

While opportunities for women to play sports continue to increase around the world, the number of women in coaching and support staff roles remains appallingly low. As the NCAA basketball tournament kicks off this week, for example, more than 50% of the head coaches are men. That’s the case in the WNBA, too.

In the NWSL, only four of the 16 teams have female head coaches. At last year’s College Cup, the head coaches of all four teams were men and national champion Florida State’s three assistant coaches also were men.

At the most recent World Cup in 2023, only 12 of the 32 teams were coached by women.

Part of the problem is the misogyny baked into society, the notion that women don’t have the skill set necessary to be leaders. Which is, of course, nonsense.

Hayes took over a U.S. team that had just made its earliest exit ever at a major international tournament and, less than three months later, led them to the gold medal at the Paris Olympics. Becky Hammon has won WNBA titles in three of her four seasons as head coach of the Las Vegas Aces. Dawn Staley’s South Carolina team hasn’t missed a Final Four since 2019.

The larger hurdle is the pipeline. Which is, more often than not, barely a trickle. There simply aren’t enough women getting into coaching or pursuing front-office roles, either because there isn’t a means to do it or they don’t think it will be worth it. Or, if they do, they find it hard to stay because the jobs are not exactly family-friendly.

The hope has long been that, as more and more women play, the numbers in the coaching and administrative ranks will follow. But FIFA isn’t willing to wait that long, and kudos to them for it. It has created mentorship programs, funded scholarships and organized coaching seminars.

Since 2021, it has supported 759 female coaches from 73 countries through its education scholarship program.  

Now it’s telling member countries that progress is no longer optional. Beginning with the Under-20 World Cup in September, any team playing in a FIFA women’s tournament must have a minimum of two women on their bench, including at least one coach.

(The USWNT has more than met that requirement. Hayes' top assistant and the team's head athletic trainer are also women.)

“There are simply not enough women in coaching today. We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines,” Jill Ellis, who led the USWNT to two World Cup titles as a head coach and is now FIFA’s chief football officer, said in the release announcing the requirement.

FIFA didn’t say how it will monitor staffs or what, if any, penalty there will be for countries that flout the regulation. Nor did it say how it will ensure those women on the field are active parts of the coaching and/or support staffs and not simply there for window dressing.

Both of those things need to be spelled out because there are still plenty of federations that believe women are second-class citizens and will continue treating them accordingly, FIFA be damned. It wasn’t even three years ago, after all, that the then-head of Spain’s federation thought it was OK to kiss newly minted World Cup champion Jenni Hermoso without her consent.

Still, this is an incredibly positive step that will benefit women and players across the globe.

FIFA might be a craven organization and president Gianni Infantino morally bankrupt. But Infantino promised to elevate the women’s game and, to his and FIFA’s credit, they have taken steps to do that. The World Cup has been expanded and its prize money increased, and more funds have been directed toward the women’s game. (Still not enough nor equal to what the men get, mind you.)

FIFA doing something good. There might be hope for this world, after all.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.