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Wednesday, November 11, 2026Nov 11

Women’s soccer to be professional in Italy by 2022

AP photo by Alessandra Tarantino / Megan Rapinoe, lifting trophy, and her U.S. soccer teammates celebrate after winning the Women's World Cup final against the Netherlands on July 7, 2019, at Stade de Lyon near Lyon, France.
AP photo by Alessandra Tarantino / Megan Rapinoe, lifting trophy, and her U.S. soccer teammates celebrate after winning the Women's World Cup final against the Netherlands on July 7, 2019, at Stade de Lyon near Lyon, France. AP photo by Alessandra Tarantino / Megan Rapinoe, lifting trophy, and her U.S. soccer teammates celebrate after winning the Women's World Cup final against the Netherlands on July 7, 2019, at Stade de Lyon near Lyon, France.

ROME – The Italian Football Federation aims to make women’s soccer a professional sport in the country by 2022, describing the move as “undelayable.”

Female players are still considered amateurs by Italian law and therefore are not permitted to earn more than 30,000 euros ($33,000) per year before taxes.

Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora has previously said he supports changing the 1981 law and making the women’s league professional.

“President (Gabriel) Gravina proposed, and the council unanimously agreed, the launch of a gradual project aimed at recognizing professionalism, starting from the 2022-23 season,” the FIGC said in a statement released after meeting Thursday.

“This prospect … has now become undelayable on the theme of equal dignity.”