Women’s football advances in its professionalization in a virtuous circle: “We are making history”

There is hope in the presentation this Thursday of the First Women’s Football Congress of Spain. After years of invisibility, the professionals of this sport organize the event on November 21 and 22 in Irún to put on the table the challenges faced by women’s football, and the sport in which women participate in general. “We are making history very quickly,” said Mónica Marchante, a sports journalist who presented the press conference at the F League headquarters.

Women’s sports leagues mainstream They haven’t had much follow-up, but in the case of soccer, after winning the World Cup last year and a good performance in this year’s Olympics, the atmosphere is different. It is increasingly common for girls to wear shirts of national team players and carry Alexia Putellas’s number 11 or Jenni Hermoso’s number 10 on their backs.

“By giving a voice to women who have taken their sports careers to the top, it is possible to position these athletes as alternative references that inspire the steps, behaviors and model the dreams of other girls, boys and adolescents, in addition to reducing inequality in grassroots sport,” declared Goizane Álvarez, Sports Representative of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, organizer of the event. “The players have fought for their dreams against everything against them and they have managed to conquer many spaces,” he values.

Thanks to the greater push for women’s football in recent times, top-level professionals will meet in what will be their first congress, in whose organization the absence of the Spanish Football Federation stands out, although the organization clarifies that it is not because they have refused to be present. . They were simply not asked because the means available were enough.

The event will feature presentations from players and coaches, but also from experts in medicine and mental health. The sector needs it: a study by the FUTPRO association revealed that four out of five elite footballers have experienced anxious or depressive symptoms due to the demanding nature of the competition.

will be addressed, according to the event website“from the historical roots of women’s football to the technical and social complexities it faces today.” Throughout the discussion tables and brainstorming sessions, “the evolution of women’s football in Spain and in the world will be explored in depth, (…) the specific injury risk factors for players, (. ..) sexual violence in sport and (…) the importance of female refereeing for equity and equality in the game.”

Between the speakers There are diverse profiles, most of them leading figures in women’s football: the coach Natalia Arroyo, the former footballer and commentator Vero Boquete, the president of League F, Beatriz Álvarez, the active player Ivana Andrés or the director of Atlético de Madrid will speak. Female, Lola Romero. There will also be successful professionals from other fields, such as Eli Pinedo, handball player.

A pioneering conference

Women had their own football league for the first time in 1988, but prejudice and lack of attention from society have until now prevented them from holding a high-level match like the one that will take place in Irun. Now that they have achieved this notoriety, the organizers say “for me and for all my colleagues” by focusing not only on football as a sport, but also as a sporting discipline with “great roots and transformative power for the entire society.” ”explains Álvarez, the Gipuzkoa representative. “The ultimate goal is to eliminate the cultural codes that limit women in all areas of society,” adds the organizer. For Pablo Vilches, CEO of League F, women’s football has to be the “engine” of women’s sports and “open the doors to women” in other disciplines.

Much has changed since this congress was born as an idea in 2022. In just over two years the Spanish team has won a World Cup, competed fiercely in the Olympics and is now looking optimistically at next year’s Euro Cup. The professionalization of women’s football – they went on strike and managed to improve their conditions last year – also has a lot to do with it having more social impact and reaching more people, Vilches adds. “These successes bring social impacts and force social structures to move, but we must continue working so that the successes are not just temporary,” Álvarez concludes.