The final whistle of Wednesday night’s Champions League fixtures marked the end of women’s football in England for 2024. A winter break over the festive period is well supported and much needed after four intense months, particularly for those competing in the Champions League, before an even more packed new year and summer, but are there downsides alongside the obvious positives?

A new report from Fifpro, the global players’ union, From High-Usage to Underload: A Tale of Two Industries, produced in conjunction with the analytics company Football Benchmark, calls for, among other things, the implementation of mandatory off-season breaks of four weeks and in-season breaks of two weeks.

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For four years, Fifpro has monitored the number of games and minutes played by players competing around the world. This year’s study looked at 300 players. From next season, every player in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) in the United States and Women’s Super League (WSL) in England will be included in the report as the pool from which data is gathered is expanded.

The conclusion is unsurprising for anyone who has knowledge of the issues raised over the international calendar. Quite simply, some players are playing a lot of games, but most are not playing enough. It is a problem which is exacerbated by uneven development across continents, with new competitions emerging in Europe and North America rather than South America, Africa or Oceania, of different competition sizes and of teams going further in competitions than others.

The study highlights the Arsenal forward Mariona Caldentey, who played in 64 games last season for Barcelona and Spain, the most of any of the 300 players analysed, which stands in stark contrast to the average number of games per player: 33. That disparity is present within domestic football and individual leagues too, with Caldentey competing in far more games than an uncapped player from a La Liga side not playing in the Champions League.

It is a problem that persists, with little change in the data. Balancing the needs of high-usage players, like Caldentey, with the underloaded majority is something no governing body at any level has mastered.

In England, the winter break provides all with a rest, but how useful is it? For Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea, who all competed in final Champions League group games this week, the break is shorter: 23 or 24 days separating those fixtures with their Women’s FA Cup fourth-round games on 12 January. For a team not in the Champions League or the fourth round, such as Birmingham or Southampton, the break is 34 days. Lengthy in-season breaks present problems, though, which is why Fifpro has recommend a maximum mandatory in-season break of two weeks.

“The problem is that the experience of players in the WSL and Championship is that there’s not enough games in both leagues,” explains Dr Alex Culvin, Fifpro director of policy for women’s football. “When the break happens it’s around a month long but, essentially, after 10 days players detrain and are not ready to play games. It takes a long time to then be retrained. So, ideally, a break becomes two weeks maximum.”

At present, that issue is left for clubs to manage, with teams calling players back for training before their maiden 2025 fixtures. But there is no rule regarding when that is across clubs. Part of the problem for the WSL and Championship is that they have stood still – with just 12 teams in the WSL and 11 temporarily in the Championship, there aren’t enough league games to stretch from September to May for those that don’t fare well in the cups without that midway stoppage.

Asked about the issues of overloading and underloading, the Arsenal defender Steph Catley says: “It’s a tough one to manage. Every individual player manages their body and their load differently. I like to keep ticking over. If I have a big chunk of time off then it’s not always a good thing, but you can manage the way that you take that time as an individual.”

Catley admits she doesn’t know the answer to the issues regarding the international match calendar. “It’s a tough one and I’m glad I’m not in charge of figuring it out,” she adds. “At the moment, the calendar is very busy for someone like me. I’m travelling back and forth to Australia a lot, it’s a lot of flying, a lot of games, and that does add up on your body. In terms of our breaks, what we’ve got just needs to be managed by the club. We need advice on how to best handle each individual player, that’s the most important thing, getting it right for the individual.”

The solution could be standardisation, which is what Fifpro wants with mandatory two-week in-season breaks and four-week off-season rests and minimum conditions for travel, preparation and recovery. Fifa and local federations could go further, bringing league start and end dates in line so that time off is more easily protected, mandating cup competitions in leagues that don’t have them, setting bigger minimum squad sizes and more.

The issue is balancing the demands of leagues, clubs and nations with greater or fewer resources and ensuring that all boats are able to rise. That is a difficult task, but the starting point should be ensuring players are put in the best possible position and condition to perform.