FIFA’s new pay regulations to support female players and coaches through pregnancy, adoption and maternity leave are a big step for women who have struggled to juggle children and career, former United States women’s coach Jill Ellis has said.
The regulations — which were approved unanimously by the FIFA Council earlier this month — include the minimum 14 weeks paid maternity leave for players being extended to coaches, while players and coaches adopting a child will be entitled to eight weeks paid absence when the adopted child is younger than two.
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A female player or coach who is not the biological mother will be granted a minimum of eight weeks family leave.
The new regulations will also allow women to receive full pay while absent from training or matches due to menstrual problems, plus encourage teams to allow female players more contact with family while on international duty.
“[A football career] shouldn’t be exclusive of being a mum or raising a child, it should be inclusive of that,” Ellis said.
“If I didn’t have support around me, I wouldn’t have had the ability to do that and maintain my…
