AC Milan Introduces Maternity Policy for Female Players and Staff

A first in European Football: the Club will guarantee automatic contract renewals for female players in the event of pregnancy during the final season of their contracts

In what is a first among the élite clubs of European football, AC Milan presents an innovative maternity policy for its female players and staff, formally ensuring a series of protections during pregnancy and early childhood that go beyond current regulations.

According to the 2017 FIFPRO Global Employment Report, a global study on working conditions in women’s football, only 2% of female players interviewed across four continents had children, and 47% said they would leave football to start a family.

With this policy, AC Milan aims to support female players and professionals making up the technical staff during their development journey, not just in their professional growth, by creating an environment that enables them to make significant life choices. In addition to the protections already provided by current legislation, the Club will also 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
• Assistance 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.

Rossonere players will also continue to benefit from protections related to pregnancy, mandatory remuneration, and return to activity as stipulated by current rules, especially FIFA guidelines, AIC collective agreements, and the Club’s internal regulations. 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, AC Milan involved the players from its First Team and Primavera Team in a process guided by the Club’s psycho-pedagogical Area, through meetings, interviews, and surveys. In this same spirit of sharing, AC Milan 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.

Giorgio Furlani, CEO of AC Milan, stated: “We are proud to present such an important project, which once again demonstrates AC Milan’s attention towards relevant matters for all the people of the Rossoneri family. We want this new step to be a further motivation for growth and development for the entire Club, becoming a model to follow, at a national and international level, ensuring that the world of football increasingly becomes an environment where everyone can feel free to make important personal decisions.”

Elisabet Spina, Head of Women Football at AC Milan, added: “The Club has always shown great attention to the well-being of its female 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. 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.”