UEFA's director of women's football Nadine Kessler has said expansion of women's football tournaments and leagues is not the problem itself, but the battle for limited space in an already overcrowded calendar, an area she says organisers must manage more responsibly, is crucial to maintaining player safety.
In an exclusive interview with ESPN, the former Germany international explored the growing congestion in the schedule and outlined potential solutions to ease the strain on players and the wider game. Players have expressed concerns over loading issues and over exertion.
Vivianne Miedema said changes need to be made for "players' physical and mental safety" in April 2025 while England captain Leah Williamson said in 2024 that the scheduling was becoming unsustainable after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.
"Do I think that the number of matches is the key problem on player load personally, also as a former player? I don't think so," Kessler said.
"I think what the key problem of recent years on player load was, and what is really not acceptable is that we are now coming up to five years in a row with final tournaments without a break for players. I think we can all agree way too much on a player. Players need to rest, especially if they play on a high level."
Kessler highlighted the growing imbalance across European football, noting that while many players struggle with underloading and a lack of competitive minutes, a small elite group faces the opposite problem of relentless overloading.
These top players regularly reach back-to-back major tournament finals, advance deep into the Champions League, and compete in high-intensity domestic leagues, placing extraordinary demands on their physical and mental endurance.
Since the postponement of the 2020 Olympics to 2021, European players have faced back-to-back tournaments with the 2022 Euros, 2023 World Cup, 2024 Olympics and 2025 Euros.
There is no major tournament in 2026 -- there are continental competitions like WAFCON and the Asian Cup -- however the cycle repeats with the 2027 World Cup, 2028 Olympics, 2029 Euros and 2031 World Cup and so on.
FIFA is also trying to implement the inaugural Club World Cup every four years from 2028 and have introduced the Champions Cup -- Arsenal won the debut edition last month -- every year for the three years when the Club World Cup is not running.
"I think the third point that impacts player load a lot is the fight often of competition organisers to find exclusivity in the calendar.
"There's space in the calendar. You see many domestic leagues expanding their competitions.
There were new competitions added, if anything, and now I'm becoming a bit protective," she said.
The former Wolfsburg midfielder added that despite introducing the playoffs to the UWCL -- which adds an extra two games, a home and an away leg, for eight teams, of which four will progress to the quarterfinals, the increase in seeding teams to the league phase means only a handful of club face extra games and leaves the increase to a minimum.
"If you look at the grand scheme of things, I think we've been really considerate about player load and we've discussed it at length when we were creating the new format and hence again, the Europa Cup.
"But yet this exclusivity, let's say fight over certain calendar spots, sometimes leads to the fact that matches are maybe scheduled in a congested way."
Arsenal faced an extra four games in five weeks this season having added in the semifinal and final of the Champions Cup and failing to reach the top four of the league phase, falling into the playoffs.
"There are so many football matches and other events going on that competition organizers have to circumvent and therefore maybe sometimes also decisions and that is always to be challenged are not taken only with sporting interests in mind, right?
"There are broadcasters who have demands and others. Stadium availability is another one, but it's certainly something that we need to get better at women's football.
"And I mean, absolutely everyone, everyone who runs a competition needs to be very responsible about this is now an exciting commercial product, but it still needs to make sure that our players are feeling good about it and are doing well."
The trend of expansion is accelerating across women's football. The Women's Super League, for instance, will grow from 12 to 14 teams at the end of the 2025-26 season, while FIFA plans to expand the Women's World Cup from 32 to 48 teams for the 2031 tournament, set to be hosted across the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica.
The Euros, however, will remain at 16 teams. Kessler has previously expressed her desire to keep the tournament at its current size, reiterating that the priority should be strengthening access to and investment in women's football across Europe before increasing the scale of its flagship competition.
- Chelsea confirm departure of Head of Women's Football Paul Green
- Arsenal stun Man City to boost UWCL hopes, keep WSL title race alive
- Sonia Bompastor signs new Chelsea deal amid poor form
"With the Euros, we believe at the moment, we think it's a very good tournament with very good quality that for right now this is the right size. However, what we have done, again, two, three years ago is reformatting the entire qualification pathway.
"Why? Also to get, again, all our 55 members active. We're almost at full participation now, again, to make many more teams compete, many more teams provide opportunities for girls. And if you see how competitive now the Nations League has become and also how attendance has gone there."
Though she said fight for tournament space needs to be addressed, Kessler and in turn UEFA, are supportive of the Club World Cup, which has received heavy criticism since FIFA announced its plans for the competition due to the global impact that the competition could have.
"Europe is one a part of a big global map and there are huge differences across women's football, across regions, which is also in the end why, for example, UEFA also supported the introduction of a Club World Cup because we believe from a global perspective, it is very important whilst we maybe have enough matches and as we said the same thing to FIFA, they can confirm."