AC Milan Becomes First Elite European Club To Expand Maternity Policy

August 23, 2024 

Football club Fondazione Milan (AC Milan) has introduced an innovative maternity policy for its women players and staff – reportedly a first among European football clubs. The policy goes beyond current regulations to include automatic contract renewals for players in the event of pregnancy during the final season of their contracts and assistance with childcare, accommodation and travel expenses. 

Historically, women athletes have been encouraged to delay pregnancy until after their competitive sports careers, but there are now many examples of sportswomen mothers sparking change. High-profile stars such as Serena Williams (tennis), Allyson Felix (athletics) and Katrina Gorry (football) all successfully returned to their careers after pregnancy. They all spoke out about the discrimination and personal and professional challenges in choosing motherhood at the height of their careers. This includes a reduction in sponsorship, no support with childcare and even protocols on breastfeeding.

According to a global study by FIFPRO in 2017 on working conditions in women’s football, only 2% of women players across four continents had children and 47% said they would leave football to start a family. Players indicated that one of the main reasons for leaving football early was to have a family.

“I hated not being able to play football, but I could still run, and I could swim. I was working with a strength coach every day, which I paid for myself…. I had to pay for everything out of my savings... I still had a bunch of regular questions going through my head about being a mom, like how will I manage doing both, being a professional and being a mom on this level??? Training while breastfeeding? How’s it going to be when I’m back in Lyon with my family?” said Sara Bjork Gunnarsdóttir on being the first player at Lyon FC to give birth and return to her career. 

With its new policy, AC Milan intends to support women players and professionals in both their personal lives and professional careers. In addition to the protections provided in current legislation, the Club will:

• Guarantee automatic contract renewal with a one-year extension on the same economic terms for players if their contract is due to expire during the season in which the pregnancy started
• Assist with childcare during sports activities and support for flights, accommodation and other travel expenses for the children of the player who carried the pregnancy or is the sole guardian, plus one companion.

AC Milan also provides its players with professionals from the psycho-pedagogical, physiotherapy, and nutritional areas and reserves the right to involve external experts as needed. To define its policy, the Club ivolved the players from its First Team and Primavera Team in a process guided by its psycho-pedagogical area through meetings, interviews and surveys. AC Milan says it will continue to build and shape its offerings to ensure the creation of an increasingly inclusive and safe environment for its players and staff members.

"The Club has always shown great attention to the wellbeing of its women players and staff members, both professionally and personally. For example, we were the first Italian Club to contribute social security benefits to our players, well before the introduction of professionalism,” said Elisabet Spina, Head of Women's Football at AC Milan.

"We further demonstrated it through the #WeAllAreFootball manifesto to mitigate gender conflict, which led to the definition of principles, initiatives and concrete interventions on the Club’s infrastructure. We are now about to start a new season in which we will work to achieve important goals, both on and off the field: we are excited to approach it by introducing our innovative policy."