AC Milan introduce new maternity policy to help female players

Avatar
Image credit: AC Milan official website

AC Milan has confirmed they will implement a new maternity policy for its female players and staff, which will ensure a series of protections during pregnancy and early childhood that go beyond current regulations.

This newly introduced policy by the club will guarantee an automatic contract renewal for female players in the event of pregnancy during the final season of their contracts.

The Italian club will also make sure there will be assistance with childcare once the player returns to action. This will include support for flights, accommodation, and other travel expenses for the child of the player who carried the pregnancy, plus one companion.

In addition, the current existing protections related to pregnancy, mandatory remuneration, and return to activity will remain in place for players.

AC Milan CEO, Giorgio Furlani, commented on the new maternity policy and hopes that will inspire other clubs to follow:

“We are proud to present such an important project, which once again demonstrates AC Milan’s attention towards relevant matters for all the people of the Rossoneri family,” he said via media release on the club’s website.

“We want this new step to be a further motivation for growth and development for the entire Club, becoming a model to follow, at a national and international level, ensuring that the world of football increasingly becomes an environment where everyone can feel free to make important personal decisions.”

Head of Women’s Football at AC Milan, Elisabet Spina, praised the club’s effort to support its female players:

“The Club has always shown great attention to the well-being of its female players and staff members, both professionally and personally,” she said via media release on the club’s website.

“For example, we were the first Italian Club to contribute social security benefits to our players, well before the introduction of professionalism. We further demonstrated it through the #WeAllAreFootball manifesto to mitigate gender conflict, which led to the definition of principles, initiatives, and concrete interventions on the Club’s infrastructure.

“We are now about to start a new season in which we will work to achieve important goals, both on and off the field: we are excited to approach it by introducing our innovative policy,” she said.

According to FIFPro’s 2017 Women’s Global Employment Report, a global study on working conditions in women’s football, only two per cent of female players interviewed across four continents had children and 47 per cent said they would leave the sport to start a family.

However earlier this year, FIFPro unveiled changes to further protect players and coaches during and after pregnancy which included:

  • A minimum of two, four or eight weeks’ leave for adoption
  • At least eight weeks of leave for the partners of mothers in same-sex relationships
  • Players have the right to take time off for health issues related to menstruation

AC Milan’s new maternity policy is an excellent way to show support for female players’ ambitions on and off the pitch, providing an opportunity to start a family while playing at a high level of sport.

Football clubs across the world, including Australia, should consider following and applying this policy to ensure female players are given the chance to still play at an elite level while not worrying too much about how it affects life outside of the sport.

Regarding football in Australia and the complicated financial situation it’s currently in, it may take a while for a policy like this to be pulled off and applied at football clubs and organisations in Australia.

Previous ArticleNext Article

Football NSW supports Female Coaches CPD as Women’s Football Surges

Avatar
Image Credit: Shutterstock

Football NSW has used the platform of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup to deliver a targeted professional development workshop for female coaches, bringing together scholarship recipients for an evening of structured learning and direct engagement with elite women’s football.

Held at ACPE last month, the session was open to female coaches who received C or B Diploma scholarships through Football NSW in 2025. Coaching accreditation carries a financial cost that disproportionately affects women, who are less likely to have their development subsidised by clubs or associations operating in underfunded community football environments. Scholarship access changes that equation at the point where many women exit the pathway.

Facilitated by Football NSW Coach Development Coordinator Bronwyn Kiceec, the workshop focused on goal scoring trends from the tournament’s group stage, with coaches analysing attacking patterns and exploring how those insights could translate into their own environments. The group then attended the quarter-final between South Korea and Uzbekistan at Stadium Australia.

The structure of the evening mattered as much as its content. Female coaches in community football rarely have access to elite competition environments as a professional resource. The gap between the level at which most women coach and the level at which the game is analysed and discussed tends to reinforce itself. Placing scholarship recipients inside a major tournament, as participants rather than spectators, closes that gap in a way that a classroom session cannot.

Female coaches remain significantly underrepresented across all levels of the game in Australia. The pipeline that will change that depends not only on accreditation access but on the professional networks, peer relationships and exposure to elite environments that male coaches have historically taken for granted.

The workshop forms part of Football NSW’s ongoing commitment to developing female coaches through scholarships and structured learning opportunities.

Marie-Louise Eta makes history as new Union Berlin head coach

Avatar
Image credit: FC Union Berlin

In an historic appointment, Eta will take over as head coach of Union Berlin until the end of the season.

History in the making

Previously the first female assistant coach in Bundesliga history with Union Berlin, Eta will now take the reigns of the men’s first team on an interim basis.

Currently, the club sit in 11th place in the Bundesliga table, but with only two wins so far in 2026, relegation appears an all-too-real prospect, and one which the club is desperate to avoid.

“Given the points gap in the lower half of the table, our place in the Bundesliga is not yet secure,” said Eta via official media release.

‘I am delighted that the club has entrusted me with this challenging task. One of Union’s strengths has always been, and remains, the ability to pull together in such situations.”

Eta will begin as Union’s new head coach with immediate effect, and will be in the dugout for the club’s matchup against Wolfsburg this weekend.

 

A step into an equal future

Eta’s appointment signals a major step towards a more level playing field in the football landscape.

Furthermore, Eta joins other coaches including Sabrinna Wittmann, Hannah Dingley and Corinne Diacre who, in recent years, have blazed a trail for female coaches to step into the men’s game.

Wittmann currently manages FC Ingolstadt in Germany’s third division, and was the first female head coach in Germany’s top three divisions.

In 2023, Dingley became caretaker manager of Forest Green Rovers, and thus the first woman to lead a men’s professional team in England.

Diacre, now head coach of France’s women’s national team, managed Ligue 2’s Clerment Foot between 2014 and 2017.

 

Final thoughts

The impact therefore, is that Eta’s appointment will show future generations of aspiring female coaches that men’s football is an equally viable and possible pathway as the women’s game.

The time is now to level the playing field.

And while it may be a short-term role, its effect on attitudes towards equality and fair opportunities in the game will hopefully resonate long after the season ends.

Most Popular Topics

Editor Picks

Send this to a friend