All About Women’s Sports: Arsenal, Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema Points Out Dangerous Schedule for Women Soccer Players

By Claire Guest

Vivianne Miedema, star player for Arsenal and the Netherlands Women’s National Team, calls attention to the dangerously heavy schedule for women soccer players.

After a fatiguing schedule of soccer matches, Miedema sees the succession of female soccer players getting injured. She insists the player’s health should come first.

With the growing popularity of women’s soccer, the scheduling demands on these world-class players have grown exponentially. Miedema describes how the COVID-19 postponement of the Tokyo Olympics played in 2021 and the UEFA Women’s European Championship played in 2022 meant the female soccer players have competed in lengthy, physically and mentally exhausting summer tournaments for five years straight (on top of their club team obligations). This is a grueling and dangerous schedule, even for top-level athletes.

During the summer UEFA Women’s Euros, Miedema was diagnosed with COVID-19 and was quarantined for several vital games. When she returned for a huge quarterfinal match against France, she played the entire 90 minutes, plus extra time for a total of 120 minutes. This came after not even one full day of recovering from her illness.

This eventually led to Miedema taking a step back at the beginning of November from Arsenal due to sheer physical and mental exhaustion.

“I felt that my mind and body were ready for a rest,” she said at the time. 

Miedema highlights the number of elite women’s soccer players who have torn their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) due to an extensive amount of games played.

This list includes 2021 and 2022 Ballon D’Or winner Alexia Putellas, the UEFA Player of the Year and BBC Player of the Year Beth Mead, and many more big names in women’s soccer.

Mead, Miedema’s partner, finished the WSL season and UEFA Women’s Champion League, went straight into the summer starting every game for the England Lionesses, then went on to win the UEFA Women’s Euros Tournament. After all of that, perhaps unsurprisingly, she tore her ACL in November when the WSL season started back up again.

Miedema’s observations point out a disturbing trend in women’s soccer. While everyone has celebrated the incredible growth and interest in the sport, the schedule of these games is dangerously heavy for athletes (women or men) and needs to be balanced with player health and safety.