PSG women surprised their fans a few days ago on social media with a video showing the moment when 31-year-old Lieke Martens announced to her teammates that she is expecting her first child. “Girls, the last few weeks have been a little different for me, and for you too, but it’s for a good reason: I’m pregnant,” she announced in the locker room. Her teammates seemed to be little concerned about the fact that they will have to face the season without their forward, who contributed seven goals last year, judging by the resounding applause and the bouquet of smiles with which they reacted to the news. One by one they approached Martens to congratulate her and hug her, gestures of solidarity that brought a couple of tears to the footballer, who has been part of the team since 2022, after a stellar time at Barcelona.
Motherhood and football have a relationship that is still being built. In 2021, FIFA drafted the first conditions on the rights of sports mothers, which provided financial and continuity guarantees to pregnant women. In July of this year, the body extended protection to also cover coaches and non-biological mothers. Thus, maternity leave must guarantee at least 14 weeks of paid leave. This period is shortened to eight weeks for women who are not biological mothers and between two and eight weeks in cases of adoption. Furthermore, female footballers have the right to take time off for health problems related to menstruation and there is a new clause that promotes a favourable family environment in federations for players with children. Female footballers can also choose to renew their contract for another year or terminate it, a very useful guarantee in cases (still so rare) like that of Martens, whose contract with PSG expires in 2025, the year in which she will be born.
The fundamental rights of female footballers in relation to maternity can be summarised in five points: the right to a pregnancy without financial worries; the right to continue playing if she is healthy and the right to decide not to continue playing even if she is healthy; the right to paid maternity leave; also the right to return to play immediately after maternity leave has ended and if the player is healthy; and finally, all the facilities to feed her baby during working hours in a suitable place.
Even so, the concern about the reprisals that the club could take in the event of pregnancy remains a fear shared by 46% of female footballers in Spain, according to the study Motherhood in women’s football, Made by FUTPROthe union of female footballers competing in the country. The 2023 analysis, based on interviews with more than 40% of Spanish professional players, concludes that 90% of professional players feel that it is very difficult to reconcile their activity as an elite athlete with motherhood, while all of them consider that clubs should implement actions to facilitate the conciliation between family and work.
In Spain, the cases can be counted on one hand. María Alharilla (Levante) and Marta Corredera (Real Madrid) are the only female footballers in the first division who have given birth. The first returned to compete with her club; the second never played again. “I felt very abandoned. I didn’t get any kind of help from the club,” she would confess to El Periódico months later. But before them, Maider Irisarri was the first female footballer to become a mother, while playing for Osasuna, in the second division in 2019. Melanie Serrano (Levante Las Planas), Irene Paredes (FC Barcelona) and Ivana Andrés (Real Madrid CF) are other sportswomen who have become mothers in recent years, although none of the three were pregnant.
The world’s footballers’ union, FIFPRO, has welcomed the reforms implemented by FIFA, although it regrets that “the majority of the 211 member associations have not yet applied these mandatory maternity rules at a national level”, which means that female footballers from certain countries, but not Spain, cannot enjoy the same rights as their colleagues from other leagues. The union warns of the next steps that it will seek to implement to improve the well-being of mothers. “We want female footballers whose contract expires during pregnancy or maternity leave to be able to automatically extend it, at least until the next transfer window. (…) On the other hand, we want fathers to also benefit from family leave and adoption leave. If eight weeks are granted to a woman in a relationship, there is no reason why they cannot be granted to a man: the current regulations are discriminatory,” they say in a statement. a statement posted on the union’s website. They also like to celebrate goals by hiding the ball under their shirts or putting their thumb in their mouths while looking for their partner somewhere in the stands.
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