2023-06-05 22:12:13
This Sunday, women’s football in Spain it went one step further in its already unstoppable growth with the second Champions obtained by the FC Barcelona in Eindhoven. The scenes of celebration in Plaça de Sant Jaume, after the joint parade for the women’s and men’s League champions a few days ago, are other milestones (after some as significant as the attendance record at the Camp Nou on March 30, 2022, with 91,553 spectators) in a success story that is not even remotely limited to the state of grace of an exceptional team nor is it limited only to the Spanish League. In the United Kingdom, an FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea has filled Wembley. In Germany we find the successive Champions League finals of Wolfsburg, in France with the power of PSG or in the United States with the victories of their team and the social phenomenon of school football.
The bet of the last directives of Barça for its women’s team it has made it take a leap in quality, in notoriety and in impact. He has also been the trigger for other clubs in the Spanish League they reconsidered the little interest they had shown up to that moment. It is a success for the club, for the sports managers of the section and for the players themselves. And of the social mass that has been recognized in this phenomenon. Of the girls who wear their team’s jersey, who already ask for autographs from the players they have as a model and who demand that they also have sticker albums. Above all, we see that what is being won is a match on the ground of equality when the girls fill the teams of their schools or the clubs of their neighborhood. When they claim that the ball, in the school yards, is also for them.
Women’s football is already close to some sports (such as tennis or athletics) in which athletes have years of advantage in conquering a leading role. It has attracted sponsors and has achieved a level of media exposure with the encouragement of media, not all of them, that have understood the significance of the phenomenon. Derogatory comments about the competitive level or misogynistic comments in the face of any wardrobe conflict continue to surface, although they start more and more marginal. However, it is still far from being able to look at men’s soccer face to face in terms of television audience or business volume. An example is the little interest shown by the television operators for the rights of the next World Cup. Or the deficiencies of the professionalization conditions of the players. But in other respects women’s football can teach lessons. Regarding the behavior of the players, the sportsmanlike atmosphere that is perceived on the pitch and in the stands, the athletes’ commitment to various causes or the ability to attract new young audiences.
But each leap forward requires a gamble that sometimes has no immediate payoff. Some of the pioneering clubs in women’s football did not really believe in it when it began to take steps towards professionalization and they disappeared from the first level. Barça, with a complicated financial situation, can’t risk missing the train and consider it as an expense to be cut, or that it does not need new spaces to grow, which is a huge investment in the future.
#unstoppable #growth #womens #football