NWSL announces ‘High Impact Player’ Rule

The National Women’s Soccer League officially announced the “High Impact Player” Rule, going into effect under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the NWSL Players Association.

According to the league, the NWSL’s rule will “provide clubs with expanded flexibility to attract and retain high impact players. The High Impact Player Rule underscores the league’s continued growth and its commitment to competing for the world’s top talent.”

The announcement comes just five days after the NWSL Players Association rejected a proposed version of the High Impact Player mechanism. The NWSL PA raised concerns about the speed at which the NWSL created the proposal, and the lack of clarity in how it would be used. The group proposed raising the salary cap by $1 million in 2026.

Now, according to the NWSL, the High Impact Player Rule allows each club to exceed the league’s “established salary cap by up to $1,000,000 for high impact players. This threshold will grow year-over-year at the same base rate as the salary cap. The additional allotment may be applied to a single player or distributed among multiple players, providing clubs with meaningful flexibility to recruit and retain high impact talent while preserving competitive balance. For any contract utilizing this provision, the cap charge of the high-impact player must be a minimum of 12% of the base salary cap.”

However, there is certain criteria for who counts as a “high impact player.” The player must meet at least one of the following “commercial or sporting” criteria, said the NWSL.

• Player selected to the End of Year NWSL Best XI First Team within the previous two (2) league seasons.
• Player is on SportsPro Media Top 150 Most Marketable Athletes within the one (1) year prior to the current league season; or,
• Player is selected in the Top 30 in Ballon d’Or voting in the two (2) years prior to the current league season; or
• Player is selected in the Top 40 of the Guardian Top 100 football players in the world in the two (2) years prior; or
• Player is selected in the Top 40 of ESPN FC Top 50 football players in the world in the two (2) years prior; or
• Top 11 minutes played for the USWNT in the prior two (2) calendar years for field players for all competition types; or
• Top one (1) minutes played for USWNT in the prior two (2) calendar years for goalkeepers for all competition types; or
• Player selected as NWSL MVP Finalist within previous the two (2) league seasons; or
• Player selected to the End of Year NWSL Best XI First Team within the previous two (2) league seasons.

“Ensuring our teams can compete for the best players in the world is critical to the continued growth of our league,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said, via a press release. “The High Impact Player Rule allows teams to invest strategically in top talent, strengthens our ability to retain star players, and demonstrates our commitment to building world-class rosters for fans across the league.”

The NWSL Players Association released a statement on the High Impact Player Rule.