FIFA has kicked off a new course that is designed to help players make the often challenging change to a new life once they retire and offer them the possibility of finding a new role within the game.

Seventy male and female players, former players and coaches from nearly 30 nations have enrolled for the first edition of the FIFA Players Executive Programme, part of FIFA's commitment to the athletes’ well-being throughout their entire lives. It also recognises the contribution that they can bring to football administration.

A number of players with FIFA World Cup™ and FIFA Women's World Cup™ experience were among those to start the course, including Casemiro, David Luiz, Thiago Silva and Fernandinho (Brazil), David Ospina (Colombia), Guillermo Ochoa (Mexico), Rodrigo de Paul (Argentina), Thiago Alcantara (Spain), Hayley Raso (Australia) and Elena Linari (Italy).

"Of course, many of you have stayed and will stay in football, which is something we also want to assist by exploring ways to get more players and coaches - women and men, of course - into high-level positions in football management," said FIFA President Gianni Infantino in an address to the participants.

"But no matter what a player, what you want to do next, or perhaps you don’t know, we must put the support mechanisms in place to facilitate the next steps and help provide a sustainable future for every single player around the world.”

The programme, which will place a special emphasis on mental well-being, recognises that a football player's career is short, is always at risk from injury and that only a few achieve financial independence during that time. At the same time, having dedicated their lives to their football careers and their performance, few are prepared for what comes next.

The course emphasises that retirement is not the end but instead the beginning of a new chapter and that a player's involvement in the sport does not have to end the moment they hang up their boots.

It features five modules, ranging from the importance of physical and mental well-being to building a legacy to navigation football management, including running a football club, league or member association. These will help players reinvent themselves and successfully move forward into their new lives.

FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsène Wenger is one of the well-known names on the programme’s academic board alongside FIFA World Cup™ winner Lothar Matthäus, former player and former French Football Association General Secretary Laura Georges, former Italy and Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini and former professional player and former CEO of Italian club Como 1907 Dennis Wise.