Fifa seeks under-23 eligibility for women’s Olympic football

Fifa has asked the International Olympic Committee to limit the women’s Olympic football tournament to under-23 players, citing concerns about fixture congestion and the workload on senior players, with the development emerging on 5 November 2026. The request relates specifically to the women’s football event at the Olympics and has prompted talks between the sport’s governing bodies.

Sources at both organisations said they are open to dialogue but there is no formal proposal in place; Fifa is understood to want input from other parties and is interested in examining the matter in discussions with the IOC and stakeholders such as players and leading member associations whose national sides routinely qualify for the Games. The organisations’ engagement is described as exploratory rather than a settled policy change.

Fifa argues the change would address fixture congestion and reduce the workload of senior internationals, but officials acknowledge such a move would dramatically alter the nature of the Olympic tournament and require careful analysis, consultation and consideration through Fifa and IOC processes. That prospect is expected to be controversial and could provoke a backlash from leading international players because the Olympics has long been regarded as one of the highlights of the women’s calendar, with Emma Hayes’s United States team securing gold in Paris two years ago. The Olympic title has been contested eight times and the US have won five.

The IOC derives significant commercial value from women’s football, particularly in markets such as the US, Europe and Australia, and may resist proposals that diminish the tournament’s appeal. For Los Angeles the women’s competition will feature 16 teams compared with 12 for the men, a reversal of the numbers at Paris 2024, underlining the event’s scale for the IOC.

Women’s football was introduced to the Olympics at Atlanta in 1996 and, as an amateur sport at that time, never had eligibility requirements in contrast to the men’s game. After admitting football to the Olympic programme in 1908 the IOC did not permit professionals to take part until 1984 owing to Fifa’s insistence on maintaining the primacy of the World Cup, as well as the demands on players from a congested calendar; under pressure from Fifa the IOC introduced an under-23 age restriction in 1992, although three overage players have also been allowed in each squad since 1996.

The huge growth and professionalisation of the women’s game over the past decade has created increased fixture congestion, with the 2028 calendar described as the most bloated yet. Fifa is to a large extent culpable for that congestion because the world governing body has chosen to launch the Women’s Club World Cup in an Olympic year, with the US to stage the 16-team competition between 5 and 30 January, six months before the Games.

The Women’s Club World Cup is expected to cause major disruption to the European club season; Arsenal and Chelsea or Manchester City are likely to be absent from domestic competition for up to a month if they reach the latter stages, missing four Women’s Super League matches and the FA Cup fourth round. Fifa and the IOC declined to comment.

The eligibility criteria for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles has been set, with qualification tournaments having begun in some regions, so no change can be made until Brisbane 2032 at the earliest. That timeline leaves any potential shift in age eligibility subject to extensive review and formal approval before it could take effect.