Author(s): YANG, J., KEMPE, M., Institution: UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA, Country: AUSTRIA, Abstract-ID: 201

INTRODUCTION:
The pace of play is widely seen as a benchmark metric for level of play and thereby for the evolution of a sport. As elite women’s football has undergone professionalization in recent years, it is commonly assumed that these developments should be reflected in faster match play. However, empirical evidence for a progressive acceleration in women’s football remains limited and methodologically inconsistent. This study examined (1) whether different pace definitions (a tactical–cognitive perspective distinct from physical intensity or running demands) produce systematically different estimates of match pace, and (2) whether pace of play in elite women’s football has changed across recent international tournaments.
METHODS:
Event data from the FIFA Women’s World Cups (2019, 2023) and the UEFA Women’s European Championships (2022, 2025) were analysed. Pace of play was quantified using four established possession-based metrics: passes per minute, meters per second per touch, time to pass, and meters per second. Linear mixed-effects models were fitted with year (centred) and pace metric as fixed effects, while competition and match were included as random intercepts to account for hierarchical data structure and contextual variability.
RESULTS:
The mixed linear model revealed significant method effects (all p < 0.001) but no temporal trend across seasons (β = -0.003, p = 0.848). Passes per minute yielded substantially higher pace estimates (β = 9.644) compared to the baseline (meters per second), while time-to-pass showed the largest negative deviation (β = -13.002), and meters per second per touch showed moderate negative deviation (β = -6.778). Substantial variance existed at both competition (Var = 0.065) and match levels (Var = 0.145), indicating meaningful heterogeneity in pace across competitions and individual games beyond what the different pace measures and progress in years could explain.
CONCLUSION:
These findings demonstrate that pace measurement is highly method-dependent, with different calculations capturing distinct aspects of match pace. Our findings suggest that women's football maintained relatively stable pace characteristics between 2019-2025, contradicting expectations of acceleration as the sport professionalizes. As women’s football matures tactically, improvements may primarily manifest through enhanced control, decision-making, and possession quality rather than pace itself. Simultaneously, co-evolving defensive organization may produce offsetting effects, producing a dynamic tactical balance while pace remains stable. The substantial between-match and between-competition variance suggests that contextual factors (e.g., match importance, tactical approaches) may drive pace variation more than secular trends. Future research should develop theoretically-grounded pace frameworks that clarify which measurement approaches best capture specific tactical intentions, and examine match-level moderators that explain the observed variance in pace of play.