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Article History

Accepted: 12 June 2025

First Online: 25 August 2025

Declarations

:

: All authors wrote, reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

: Funding was received by the FIFA Women’s Football Division to assist with the preparation of this manuscript. This article is published in a supplement issue that was supported by FIFA.

: The contents of this Leading Article are presented clearly, honestly and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation. In the interest of transparency, DS and RL have freelance roles at the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and have worked for national football associations and football clubs. BW works for the FIFA Women’s Football Division. The authors have no other competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.

: Our author team consists of two female and one male author; representing early to mid-career researchers working in elite and grassroots football applied practice, governance and education, living in three different countries over two continents.