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[THREAD: SPANISH WOMEN FOOTBALL BAN AND BARCELONA FEMENI]
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Sadly, there seem to be a lot of league bans that were invoked in the world of women's football. I have talked about the FA's ban on women's football.
As I started researching, it seems to me that there are many more who experienced this. In this thread, I will discussing the ban of women's football in Spain and where they are now.
During the regime of Francisco Franco, women's football was illegal. His reign lasted from 1939 until 1975, only after that could women finally play professionally. It was also deemed 'unsuitable' by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
When Spain became a democracy, the women's team was not immediately recognized as such. In 1980, the women gained national team recognition and in 1983, the Spanish women's team made their debut in 1983.
During the ban, however, a 17-year old girl came to Agusti Montal, then President of Barcelona. This girl was named Immaculada (Imma) Cabeceran Soler, she wanted the team to have a women's team as well. Montal gave her the greenlight, however under two conditions:
Imma had to organise the team and they had to win every game. Montal also gave the girls the opportunity to play at the Camp Nou, he organised a game for them team against UE Centelles.
The first match of Barca Femeni was played on Christmas Day, however without the Barcelona shirt or name on the girls. In 2002, the name of this team officially became Barcelona Femeni.
So, for the last few years La Liga has been pushing to make women's football popular and sustainable, that is exactly what Barcelona is doing by promoting the women's team. In 2015 La Liga took over Primera Divison with the intent to make it an attractive and sustainable product.
On March 17, 2019 the Wanda Metropolitana stadium was filled with 60, 739 fans to watch Atletico Madrid Women- Barcelona Women.
This was made possible due to the foundation-building in Spain for women's football and it was helped by the women's teams earning international success.
This was made possible due to the foundation-building in Spain for women's football and it was helped by the women's teams earning international success. The Spanish FA (RFEF) also wants to invest 20mil EUR into women's football this season.
This will be successful due to marketing teams who can work with accessible grounds, the chance to promote big games and attend for free, plus top-level football to promote on the accounts as well.
Even though, there was a pretty long ban on Spanish women's football. Spain is trying to make up for it by investing more into the sport.
As always, the sources I used to learn more about this:
https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/tournament-guides/world-cup-2015-guide/players-to-watch-at-the-2015-womens-world-cup/spain-english/, https://www.sbnation.com/2019/5/23/18635730/spain-la-liga-barcelona-womens-champions-league, https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/major-milestone-for-women-s-football-as-spanish-clubs-set-attendance-record-1.3832894, and https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/how-a-17-year-old-girl-fought-for-women-s-football-in-barcelona-1.3367225.
https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/tournament-guides/world-cup-2015-guide/players-to-watch-at-the-2015-womens-world-cup/spain-english/, https://www.sbnation.com/2019/5/23/18635730/spain-la-liga-barcelona-womens-champions-league, https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/major-milestone-for-women-s-football-as-spanish-clubs-set-attendance-record-1.3832894, and https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/how-a-17-year-old-girl-fought-for-women-s-football-in-barcelona-1.3367225.
