FIFA decreed Thursday that all women’s teams competing in world tournaments must have a woman head or assistant coach on the bench.

The rule, newly approved by the FIFA Council, applies to national and club competitions at the senior and youth levels, including the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil and this year’s Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Poland.

Along with the female head or assistant coach, the edict mandates the presence of at least one more female staffer on each team’s bench.

“There are simply not enough women in coaching today. We must do more to accelerate change by creating clearer pathways, expanding opportunities and increasing the visibility for women on our sidelines,” FIFA chief football officer Jill Ellis, the former U.S. women’s national team coach, said in a statement.

“The new FIFA regulations, combined with targeted development programs, mark an important investment in both the current and future generation of female coaches.”

Women coached 12 of 32 teams at the 2023 World Cup. Seven of those sides now field a male head coach and four nations previously coached by men now have a woman in the role, The Telegraph reported.

Six teams at that tournament, which Spain won with a 1-0 victory over England in the final, employed no female coaches, according to The Telegraph.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino addressed the subject in February at the UEFA Congress in Belgium.

“Of course we need more women in important positions in football,” Infantino said. “I’m a father — proud father, I should say — of four daughters, so we need to create job opportunities for all the women, but we can only learn, of course, from women.

“So we should support, of course, more women in football positions and more women generally. Maybe we need, actually, as well, more women coaches in women’s teams. This is another debate that we will have to have at some stage because we’ve seen that there are excellent coaches.”

–Field Level Media