FIFA is to introduce new regulations to protect the rights of women players, including mandatory maternity leave, the world football governing body said on Thursday.

The reforms have been put forward by FIFA’s Football Stakeholders Committee (FSC) and will go to FIFA’s Council in December for approval.

While many players in Europe are already protected by employment laws in their given countries, FIFA says its aim is to create “new global minimum standards” for female players all over the world.

It said the regulations were necessary given the rapid emergence of new clubs and leagues globally.

The proposed rules include a mandatory maternity leave of 14 weeks, at a minimum of two-thirds of the player’s contracted salary.

In addition to this, there will be a guarantee that “no female player should suffer a disadvantage as a result of becoming pregnant”.

The planned regulations also state that on their return to work after maternity leave, clubs must “reintegrate female players and provide adequate medical and physical support”.

Women players’ contractual rights were already covered by the existing regulations for all footballers but the changes are a bid to address specific concerns for female players.

It is also to be viewed as a basic minimum that can be applied in all countries.

“As we try to accelerate the professionalism of the women’s game, which is one of our strategic objectives, it is really important that we evolve and adapt the regulatory framework around the game at the same time.

“This is a very good example,” Sarai Bareman, FIFA’s Chief Women’s Football Officer, told reporters.

“We want to see more women being able to earn a living playing football whilst at the same time being able to have a family life and being mothers.

“It is important that we provide the necessary regulatory framework to protect those women,” she added.

The new regulations also seek to address problems for coaches working internationally.

Until now coaches’ contracts have been subject to the same regulations as players, but FIFA wants to introduce specific language to deal with the rights of coaches.

“The aim is to protect contractual stability, achieve greater transparency and make sure that coaches also get paid on time,” FIFA said in a statement.

Kwara United Football Club of Ilorin on Monday unveiled Lucas Alves, a Brazilian winger, as one of their players for the upcoming 2020/2021 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) season.

Manchester United said on Monday that they would be providing 5,000 free school meals during the October half-term holidays.

The English Premier League (EPL) clubside said this was to help forward Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child food poverty in the UK.

Rashford has campaigned for the government to provide food vouchers during school holidays to children who normally receive free meals during term time if their parents receive welfare support.

Dozens of local organisations all over the country came forward last week to supply free school meals in response to the 22-year-old’s plea on social media.

Now, working together with the charity FareShare, meals will be prepared and packaged individually at Old Trafford by club staff before being shipped to local Manchester United Foundation partner schools.

Six local schools will receive the meals while others will be delivered to local charities.

“Many of Manchester’s children are going hungry and they are particularly vulnerable during school holidays when they cannot benefit from the meal voucher programme,” Collette Roche, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Manchester United said.

“In parallel with the brilliant work being done individually by Marcus Rashford, we’re proud that the club continues to step in alongside FareShare, the Foundation and their partner schools to help fill this void.”

Rashford forced a government U-turn in July when he won his battle to ensure free school meals during the summer holidays.

He then proposed extending the campaign for families receiving financial assistance from the government.

Parliament on Wednesday rejected a Labour Party motion to extend free school meals until Easter 2021 from the cut-off before the half-term and winter holidays.

This had then prompted the England international to launch his campaign on social media.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday he fully accepted that children going hungry during school holidays was a problem during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But he said he had not spoken to Marcus Rashford over his plans to tackle it.

No fewer than nine people in Kwara United FC of Ilorin have tested positive to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.