Providing resources to develop, train and prepare women as women: that is the nexus of the FIFA Female Health and Performance Project, an initiative designed by FIFA to provide a comprehensive understanding of female athletes, their individual needs, their environment, and the personalised support they require to optimise their health and performance.

The project marks a turning point in the women’s football ecosystem, as it is aimed at translating research into educational modules that enable information to be shared with all stakeholders and developed into practical ideas. Those modules constitute an online learning programme designed to enhance player care, which is available at the FIFA Training Centre and comprises four levels.

Laura Harvey, the coach with the most regular-season wins in the history of the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL), was one of the key figures consulted by FIFA on this initiative.

“The way the women's game is managed, the research, the scientific data, the periodisation models and how we manage, treat and improve players has always been based on what has happened in the men’s game, and only then do we ask ourselves how we can adapt that to the women’s game,” says Harvey, 46, currently the head coach of Seattle Reign FC.

Her statement is backed up by a statistic indicating that a mere 6% of research in sports and exercise science focuses exclusively on women, and that the application of new scientific knowledge in practice can take up to 10 years.

“By doing deep dives into female health, the body and how each gender is different will enable us, over time, to really elevate the women’s game. To be able to provide players with better resources – ones that are adapted to them and that maybe we’ve never thought of before – is really important,” adds the English-born, US-naturalised coach.

But why is this initiative different? “Firstly, world football’s governing body backing it and pushing people to talk about it is giving it some validity. The fact that FIFA is willing to invest money, time and resources in it is getting people excited about the impactful change that could actually happen,” she explains.

“It also helps that FIFA has a lot of pull and has attracted a lot of the best people I’ve seen working in the game, who are getting involved in asking the right questions and trying to find the right answers.”

The FIFA Female Health and Performance Project brings to the fore gender-relevant topics such as , female physiology, female reproductive years, menstrual cycles, pregnancy and the post-partum period, menopause, pelvic health, how to reduce the risk of injury, sleep and nutrition, among other things.

“I was born in the ’80s and grew up in the ‘90s. In the early 2000s, when I was in my early 20s, in that stage when I was coming up from being a player to being a coach, there were topics no one wanted to talk about. Things happened that people would maybe joke about – you know, how you feel when you’re on your menstrual cycle, but it was probably more of a jovial conversation, not a profound conversation where you were trying to find solutions,” says Harvey, who lifted numerous trophies as coach of Arsenal W.F.C. between 2009 and 2012.

Female athletes are between three and six times more likely to suffer cruciate ligament injuries than men, meanwhile, and Harvey believes the renewed focus on gender-specific education and insights can only be a good thing.

“What has been frustrating is that, over the years, research has been carried out on anterior cruciate ligament injuries and the menstrual cycle, but how much of that information has been taken on board?,” she asks. “How many actionable points that could be introduced into the environment and genuinely impact the players have actually been utilised?”

Harvey, whose football career was cut short at the age of 22 precisely due to a cruciate ligament tear, provides some more context to her answer. “Because it’s backed by FIFA, I’m hoping it reaches those people who can actually decide to spend money on these types of things to help players in the long term. If so, I do think we will see players’ careers have more longevity, the reduction of injury risk and adaptations to periodisation in relation to multiple factors, the menstrual cycle being one of them.”

That should also apply to female coaches, emphasises Harvey, who has been in the profession for almost 25 years. “I am ultimately employed to do a job. Contractually, I don’t have something in writing that says I can take a day off if I’m dealing– as I am currently– with menopause and its symptoms. My job is not catered towards me being able to take my foot off the gas to deal with that stuff. As a coach, I might be very open to managing that in certain way, but I am also responsible and accountable to the people above me. If they’re not buying it, it doesn’t matter what I think.”

Based on that premise, Harvey believes that, in the short term, the greatest impact of the FIFA Female Health and Performance Project will be “how we periodise our training throughout the year, through the month, through the week, through the day. If the research shows how we should approach things like nutrition and sleep, all the little things on and off the pitch, it will have a huge impact on what we do”.

As for the medium and long term, Harvey is extremely optimistic. “When you see what has happened in the game historically, 94% of which has been based on the men’s game, so going into this with an open mind means the sky is the limit. So many things could change,” she states.

“Ten or 12 years ago, it was a completely different game than it is today. We’ve broken so many barriers in the women’s game in terms of attendance records, participation records, revenue records, and that was without all this research. If we can turn that 6% into 60% or 70%, it can be incredibly impactful because we’ve already shown that we can change the game.

“Just by making the time to do that, to be willing to invest, to secure the commitment of the clubs, associations, confederations and FIFA itself, we will see meaningful results at all levels. At the end of the day, more people will be going to games, more money will be generated, there will be more sponsorship, more revenue, better brands. The impact is global. I am quite excited about what the future holds."