Women's football/FFF development plan: "The right time to take actions to step up" (J.-M. Aulas)

"It is never 100% guaranteed, but we have strong signs that now is the right time to take the necessary actions in order to step up. We need to get the ball rolling and give women's football the resources to exist. In the short term, it will not be possible to get a return on all that has been invested. That's why the Federation has decided to accelerate its funding programme for women's football (with an additional €4-5m, according to Philippe Diallo). But we really have ambitions. It's a global trend, not just linked to France and our desire to promote women's football," declared Jean-Michel Aulas, member of the FFF's executive committee and president of the top-level women's football commission, to the French daily L'Equipe on 13/04/2023.

The president of Olympique Lyonnais (D1 Arkema) and Philippe Diallo, interim president of the French Football Federation, have unveiled the body's "development plan for top-level women's football" at the FFF's headquarters on the same day.

Among the main measures of this plan to professionalise women's football in France:
• The introduction of…