Three trips around the planet: Matildas’ heavy workloads revealed

Six Matildas stars travelled so far last season they could have circumnavigated the planet three times each, according to a new study into the increasing workload of top women’s footballers by FIFPro, the global players’ union.

The study, From High-Usage to Underload: A Tale of Two Industries, looks at what FIFPro describes as an imbalance in the development of the women’s game, with a small number of elite players in top competitions being asked to shoulder “excessive pressure” by playing more and more matches, while the majority play considerably less.

Matildas star Ellie Carpenter was the second-most travelled female player in the world last season.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

It includes a list of the top 10 players ranked by international travel load in the 2023-24 season, six of whom are Australian: Hayley Raso (1st), Ellie Carpenter (2nd), Caitlin Foord (3rd), Kyra Cooney-Cross (5th), Steph Catley (6th) and Teagan Micah (7th).

All six of those players spent at least seven days – 2 per cent of their season – on flights between Europe and Australia, racking up a total distance of at least 130,000 kilometres.

While this is an obvious consequence of Australia’s geographic isolation from Europe, where most of the Matildas’ biggest stars play their club football, the numbers highlight the significant physical and mental strain they are being placed under.

FIFPro’s research doesn’t include domestic travel, or trips taken while on tour with a club or national team, which would extend those distances even further.

Carpenter was one of four players selected for an in-depth analysis of the workloads they were asked to carry for club and country between the start of the 2023-24 campaign and the end of the Olympic Games in Paris.

The 24-year-old, who plays her club football for French club Olympique Lyonnais, played 3849 minutes in all competitions last season, a personal record. Her busiest period was between January and March 2024, when she was free of Matildas-related commitments but played six club matches in each month – four of which were played ‘back to back’, meaning a gap of five days or fewer between games.

Carpenter also had just 10 days’ break between her last outing for the Matildas in Paris and when she was due to report back to Lyon for pre-season training ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Raso, meanwhile, ranked 11th in the world for players who made the most ‘back-to-back’ appearances, with 29 of her 52 matches for the Matildas and her then-club, Real Madrid, occurring shortly after the last. Only eight others played more matches than her during the 2023-24 season, although since many of her outings for Real Madrid were as a substitute, she logged roughly half as many minutes as those above her.

Carpenter spoke earlier this year of how “jammed” the calendar was becoming and how the implications were “quite dangerous” for players who were being exposed to a higher risk of injury by backing up repeatedly.

“It’s tough. The calendar is tough. It’s getting tougher every year,” Carpenter said after the Matildas played a boring 1-1 draw with China at Adelaide Oval, held five days after she logged 90 minutes in Lyon’s 2-0 defeat to Barcelona in the Women’s UEFA Champions League final, and just before players were given a short break before the Olympics.

“We’ve expressed these problems to FIFPro recently ... a lot of the girls were playing in four competitions this season, a game every three days. We’re just quite tired.

“We travel so much during the season ... it catches up with you eventually. When we come out, we want to play our best football, you want to give 100 per cent - and I know every single one of us, we want to give 100 per cent. Some days that might not be able to physically happen, mentally we can’t do that, but we always try our best.”

Professional Footballers Australia chief executive Beau Busch said FIFPro’s research showed that urgent solutions were needed, with some players close to breaking point and others playing so little football their development was being stunted.

“Following the Women’s World Cup, we emphasised the critical need for player input in scheduling to address workload demands and inadequate recovery time,” said Busch, who was last week appointed president of FIFPro Asia/Oceania.

“With the women’s football calendar continuing to expand, integrating players’ voices and experiences into the game’s governance model is required to protect their welfare and address the imbalance.

“For our national team players, the tyranny of distance presents unique challenges. The National Teams Collective Bargaining Agreement helps tackle this by providing business-class travel to support recovery and performance.”

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