ONE TOUCH INSIGHT
Lazio Women’s treatment of Maja Göthberg shows how quickly a club can fall foul of FIFA’s strengthened maternity rules. The CAS ruling is the first to find a side unlawfully ended a player’s contract because of pregnancy, and it did so even though Göthberg had not yet signed the proposed new deal. That Lazio acted on the assumption that an unsigned offer left them free to terminate reveals a dangerous misreading of the regulation, which protects players from the moment they disclose pregnancy.
The financial penalty and the precedent set here will ripple through Italy’s top‑flight women’s league, pushing teams to audit contracts and embed genuine maternity safeguards rather than rely on paperwork loopholes. Clubs that continue to treat pregnancy as a negotiable clause risk repeat sanctions and reputational damage.
Lazio now face a decision: either appeal the CAS award or accept the compensation and overhaul their internal policy to comply with the 2024 FIFA maternity framework.
AI-assisted · generated from The Guardian reporting, not editor reviewed
