REVIEW article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Women in Sport
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspor.2025.1602457
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches to Enhancing Female Athletic PerformanceView all articles
Factors related to the success in women's football--a systematic review
Provisionally accepted
- South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
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Introduction: Football success is defined as the achievement of a team in the game, which is measured by the combination of winning championship, higher ranking and better performance. This study reviews the factors influencing the football success in women's football from macro (economy, politics, culture), meso (geographical environment, football tradition, talent development, gender equality, league prosperity), and micro (technical/tactical, physical performance, situational factors) perspectives.Methods: A systematic search was carried out in the Web of Science, Scopus, and Pub Med database, the search strategy included the terms for the population ('women' OR 'female'), the sport ('football' OR 'soccer'), the variables (determinant', 'success', 'ranking').Results: A total of 62 studies were included in the analysis. The findings suggest that at the macro dimension, economic development positively correlates with FIFA rankings, and policy support influences football success. Culturally, a culture that emphasizes creativity and strength can facilitate the success in women's football, while a culture of conservatism and humility hinders it. Regarding meso factors, geographical and climatic conditions, football tradition, the quality of talent development, and the degree of gender equality also emerged as important determinants. At the micro dimension, factors such as scoring first, high-intensity running, ball possession, home advantage, and playing weaker teams are closely associated with match success. Conclusion: These insights offer evidence-based recommendations for policymakers to promote women's football through increased economic investment, infrastructure development, and prioritized support policies, while coaches are encouraged to optimize training processes and incorporate situational factors to enhance team performance.
Keywords: Determinant, football tradition, Match performance, Situational factor, women's football
Received: 29 Mar 2025; Accepted: 30 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Shen, Li and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pei Li, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.