Women's football in Spain
Spain at the 2019 World Cup qualifiers
CountrySpain
Governing bodyRoyal Spanish Football Federation
National team(s)Spain
National competitions
Club competitions
International competitions
Champions League
FIFA Women's World Cup (National Team)
European Championship (National Team)
Olympics (National Team)
Audience records
Single match75,784[1]

Women's football in Spain is governed by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. Currently there are two national competitions, the League and the Copa de la Reina (English: Queen's Cup), in the professional club involved structure.[2][3] Women's football in Spain historically and currently faces systemic misogyny.[4][5]

History

Women's football was recorded as being played in Spain as early as the 1910s.[6] The first known women's football teams in Spain were founded in Barcelona in 1914, inspired by reports of teams playing in England. A small football association, the Spanish Girl's Club, was set up and sponsored two teams, Montserrat and Giralda. They played their first match on 9 June 1914; both teams were initially coached by Jack Greenwell[7]: 315–317  when he was also player-coach of the Barcelona men's team,[8] and then by Paco Bru. Despite becoming popular and playing well enough that one sports paper said they would soon be able to compete with men's second or youth teams,[9] the teams did not last long. The Spanish Girl's Club stopped playing due to World War I.[7]: 315–317 

During the 1920s, female footballers such as Ana Carmona Ruiz (who dressed up as a male) and Irene González played games for male teams.[10] Though women's sport grew in the 1920s, football was not one, with some exhibition games played but also deemed sexist and simply for male entertainment. The outlook was more positive in the early 1930s. In 1932, another association was created, this time in Valencia, for women's teams to play each other and develop the sport. It quickly sponsored four professional teams – Levante, España, Atlético and Valencia – which toured Spain and Latin America. FC Barcelona added Ana María Martínez Sagi, who believed in feminism through sports, to its board of directors in 1934. The arrival of the Spanish Civil War effectively shut women out of football.[7]: 320–321 

Between the 1930s and 1975, during the Franco regime, women were forbidden from playing football.[10] Despite this, in 1971, Victoria Hernández became the first female footballer to sign a "professional" contract. The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) did not recognize women's football until 1980.[11] Women did not have a national league until 1988.[12] In 2019 the Spanish FA committed to spending $20 million in the area of women's football.[13]

National team

Spain with the ball in the 2023 World Cup semifinal against Sweden

The Spain national football team has qualified three times for the FIFA World Cup, for the first time in 2015 and every World Cup since then. They qualified three times for the UEFA European Championship.[14] Prior to winning the 2023 World Cup, the furthest the senior national team reached at international competition was the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 1997.[15][16]

The U-17 national team won the U-17 European Championship in 2010, 2011, 2015, and 2018, as well as becoming champions at the 2018 and 2022 U-17 World Cups, and finalists in the 2014 U-17 World Cup.[17]

The U-19 national team won the UEFA U-19 European Championship in 2004, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023.[18]

The U-20 national team were runner-ups at the 2018 U-20 World Cup and then champions at the 2022 U-20 World Cup.

Spain's greatest achievement was winning the 2023 World Cup.[19] Olga Carmona scored the winning goal in the final as captain of the team. Spain became the first women's team to hold three World Cups (senior, under-20, and under-17) simultaneously. Salma Paralluelo played in all three of those tournaments. Spain were also leading goalscorers in the tournament with 18 goals.[20]

Spain became a top 10 team in the FIFA World Rankings for the first time in 2021.[21] Spanish players won all categories of the 2021 UEFA awards, the first time all from one nation. The winners were Alexia Putellas, Sandra Paños, Irene Paredes, and Jennifer Hermoso. In December 2023 after their success in the Nations League, Spain became the number one ranked team in the world.[22]

National competition

The first teams and the first informal women's football competitions in Spain emerged in the 1970s, although they were not officially recognized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation until 1980, with the founding of the National Women's Football Committee.[23] The first official national competition was the Copa de la Reina, established in 1983.[24] The women's national league began to dispute the 1988-89 season.[25]

Primera División is the national competition for female football players in Spain.[26]

Below the Primera División, there is a second tier called Primera Federación, where its teams are divided into seven groups.[27] In 2020 Primera Federación teams became full time professionals.[28]

The lower tiers are administered by the regional federations.[27]

Level

League

Professional league

1

Primera División
(Liga F)
16 teams

↓↑ 2 teams

2

Primera Federación
16 teams

↓↑ 4 teams

3

Segunda Federación
32 teams divided into 2 groups

↓↑ 6 teams

4

Primera Nacional
6 groups, 14 teams each

5

Regional leagues

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pal, Alasdair. "Spain defeat England in final of record-breaking Women's World Cup". Reuters. Retrieved 20 August 2023.
  2. ↑ Fonseca, Diego (February 20, 2021). "De la marginación a la élite, 50 años de la selección femenina de fútbol". EL PAÍS.
  3. ↑ "El fútbol, la última gran barrera del machismo en el deporte". AS.com. April 24, 2017.
  4. ↑ Ibaceta, Alex (2023-08-26). "A revolution 40 years in the making: how the Spanish women's team fought back". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  5. ↑ "Spain's women's soccer team keeps fighting after misogynistic World Cup fiasco". Los Angeles Times. 2023-09-26. Retrieved 2023-11-17.
  6. ↑ Giovio, Eleonora (30 May 2019). "Women's World Cup 2019 team guide No 7: Spain". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 Torrebadella-Flix, Xavier (2016-05-18). "Fútbol en femenino. Notas para la construcción de una historia social del deporte femenino en España, 1900-1936". Investigaciones Feministas (in Spanish). 7 (1): 313–334. doi:10.5209/rev_INFE.2016.v7.n1.52710. ISSN 2171-6080.
  8. ↑ "Jack Greenwell (1913-23,1931-33)". FC Barcelona. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  9. ↑ Ortiz, Miguel Ángel (7 March 2018). "Las Spanish Girl's Club". Panenka. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  10. 1 2 O'Riordan, Joanne. "How a 17-year-old girl fought for women's football in Barcelona". The Irish Times. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  11. ↑ "Serial Fútbol Femenino en MARCA.com | El origen clandestino de la selección". www.marca.com.
  12. ↑ "Los primeros pasos del futbol femenino en España | Cuadernos de Fútbol". www.cihefe.es.
  13. ↑ "Spanish FA to invest 20 million euros in women's football". Marca.com. 21 June 2019. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  14. ↑ "'It's a great day for Spanish women's football'" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  15. ↑ "Los grandes cambios del fútbol femenino a lo largo de los años". March 4, 2019.
  16. ↑ RIVAS, ALBERTO (June 20, 2022). "Cinco curiosidades que no sabías de la selección española en las Eurocopas". RTVE.es.
  17. ↑ "España, campeona del mundo sub-20 por primera vez en la historia". El Español. August 29, 2022.
  18. ↑ Longman, Jeré (June 23, 2019). "For Spain, Investment Pays Off at the World Cup". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  19. ↑ "England beaten by Spain in Women's World Cup final" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  20. ↑ "Spain v England | Final".
  21. ↑ "Women's Ranking". www.fifa.com. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  22. ↑ "World Cup champion Spain finally takes top spot in FIFA women's rankings, Canada 10th".
  23. ↑ Madu, Zito (May 23, 2019). "Spain and La Liga are showing the world how to support women's soccer". SBNation.com.
  24. ↑ Pardillo, Nerea; Fotografía, A. S. (June 11, 2022). "20 hitos del fútbol femenino español". Diario AS.
  25. ↑ "Spanish gov't to end 'injustice' in women's game". ESPN.com. March 12, 2021.
  26. ↑ Grez, Matias (July 11, 2022). "Women's Euro 2022: With two major injuries, can pre-tournament dark horse Spain still dazzle?". CNN.
  27. 1 2 "La RFEF crea una nueva competición para potenciar el fútbol femenino, la Primera División B" [RFEF creates a new competition for developing the women's football, the Primera División B] (in Spanish). Royal Spanish Football Federation. 24 July 2018. Retrieved 22 September 2022.
  28. ↑ "Women's soccer gains professional status in Spain". The Seattle Times. June 10, 2020.
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