How the Other Half Plays

After decades on the subs bench, women’s football is warming up to take its place on the global stage (pitch?). With France still on a high after the men’s victory in Russia 2018, the VIII Women’s World Cup (WWC) quickly exceeded predicted viewing figures, enthusiasm and appeal, both at home and abroad. However, while the game is becoming more accessible for women at all levels, including here in Barcelona, the playing field is still far from level. 

The first official FIFA WWC was held in China in 1991, with 12 nations competing and overall attendance of 510,000. The USA took the title, going on to win twice more, including at Canada 2015 where 1,353,506 fans cheered on 24 teams. The US is favorite again this year, and looks to be firmly on course for its fourth title, having knocked out England’s Lionesses, managed by former Manchester United midfielder Phil Neville. As well as the reduced on-pitch theatrics, the rankings (England were third) make a refreshing change from the domination by the usual suspects in the men’s game. While this year’s tournament ended in disappointment for England, it looks increasingly likely that one day it’ll be the girls who finally bring football home. 

2015 also saw Spain compete for the first time. Unfortunately, La Roja’s second outing recently ended in disappointment when it was knocked out by the defending champion (and a rather dubious penalty). FC Barcelona Femení came home with heads held high though, claiming the highest representation at the Cup. Ten blaugranes played for Spain and a further five for their respective countries, including England’s Toni Duggan and the Netherlands’ Lieke Martens and Stefanie Van der Gragt. 

The history of women’s football goes back much further than ’91, though. England’s Football Association (FA) records the first official match in 1895 and first international in 1920. Despite criticism from some quarters, the boot was firmly on the other foot during World War I, while the men were away fighting and women worked in munitions factories. One of the era’s big names, Dick Kerr’s Ladies, from Preston, drew a record crowd of 53,000 to a 1920 Boxing Day match against St Helen’s. Top scorer, Lily Parr, is anecdotally reported to have been a heavy smoker and partly paid in cigarettes.  

Despite its popularity—or, some say, because of it—in 1921 the FA banned women playing on its pitches on the grounds that, “The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged." The ban was finally lifted 50 years later, in 1971, following a surge in football fever after the men’s historic 1966 World Cup victory and the formation of the Women's Football Association (WFA) in 1969. The first WFA Cup Final was held in 1971.  

Today, footballing bodies are keen to promote the game. FIFA recently signed an agreement with UN Women to leverage the power of the world’s favorite sport, make it more accessible to women and girls and promote equality. The number of national and international competitions has grown steadily over the years to include, among others, the UEFA Women’s Euros and the Women's Champions League. Despite losing 4-1 to Lyon (the latter’s fourth consecutive and sixth title overall) in May this year, Barça made history as the first Spanish team to reach the Champions final. 

Despite advances, though, the game is still dogged by controversy over inequality. Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter earned the wrath of many in 2004 when he suggested women play in “more feminine clothes.” Pay and prize money are also frequent subjects of complaint and this World Cup is no exception, with a petition on Change.org calling for an end to “salary discrimination.” The WWC’s most successful team, the USA, is taking its national soccer federation to court over perceived disparities in pay and conditions between it and the far less-successful men’s team. And Lyon star Norwegian Ada Hegerberg declined to represent her country in what some interpret as a protest about unequal treatment by her national federation. Hegerberg’s receipt of the inaugural Ballon d’Or Féminin was also overshadowed by accusations of sexism last year when she was asked to twerk at the ceremony. 

Here in macho-but-football-mad Spain, futbol femení has been going from strength to strength, smashing attendance records this year when 60,739 fans cheered on an Atlético de Madrid- FC Barcelona clash. A fledgling Barça Femení played its first Camp Nou game in 1970, finally going pro in 2015. To date, the team has won multiple Copas de la Reina and Copas de Catalunya and currently sits second in La Liga, below Atlético de Madrid. RCD Espanyol, ninth, is also not without copas to its name. 

The Real Federación Española de Fútbol is responding to growing interest, making women’s football a priority with the creation of a dedicated department, changes to the Liga and the allocation of a 20 million euro budget next season. It aims to make football the most played sport among young girls, overtaking current favorites basketball and golf. There are currently 144 women’s teams between the first and second divisions and the RFEF reports a 50% increase in licenses on last season.

At regional level, there are some 203 clubs with a women’s team. The Federació Catalana de Futbol’s Campaña Orgullosa provides subsidies and financial incentives, including Federació membership, licenses, travel and courses, among other things. It also runs the Jornada de Futbol Femení for kids each May—with a record number of participants this year—and is working towards achieving greater visibility in the media.

National and regional games can usually be caught on channels like Gol TV or Esport 3.

There’s certainly no shortage of opportunities to watch the game, but what if you fancy a kick-around in the Catalan capital? Brit Hermans is City Manager of the Barcelona chapter of the CeleBreak football community. Despite all of the above, and having played at national level in her native Netherlands, when she arrived here in June 2017 she found it difficult to get a game. She put out feelers but only had, “One reply from a club and it didn't take any girls,” adding, “I was a bit frustrated because I love to play and basically the first thing I was searching for in Barcelona was a place to play football.” Then, a chance meeting with one of the CeleBreak founders at its football tournament led to her coming on board to build a female football community in the city. 

At that point, CeleBreak had been organizing friendlies, which they call “pick-up football,” leagues and tournaments for a year.  Pick-up games are open to all ages and levels, sign up is via app and costs just €5.99 a game. The organizers book the pitch and provide bibs and balls; all players need to do is turn up. At the time, though, the only option for women was to play in mixed teams. Differences in ability, training or competitiveness between the sexes can make this off-putting for some. So, Brit reached out to Barcelona expat communities and, “Super soon, I think after two weeks, we had the first women's game.” They now offer four women's games and three mixed games per week and are concentrating on pick ups rather than tournaments or leagues, “We figured our most unique product is the application where you can play whenever you want to, open for all levels, open for girls, for mixed football, men's football.” 

Brit says she was initially surprised when her boss suggested a mixed league, “I looked at him and I was like ‘Which guy would want to play with girls?’ In the Netherlands it doesn't really exist.” As it turns out, quite a few (and not just for the reasons you’re thinking). Mixed football may appeal to guys coming back from injury, or who just enjoy a less rabidly competitive game.

CeleBreak runs games year-round, adjusting schedules to cooler hours in the summer, often at times convenient for those working irregular hours. In addition to a base of expats, students and locals, the organization wants to target companies, offering the option to block-book games for corporate teams or team-building exercises. 

Brit reports growing demand both in its female community and the local pitches she’s in contact with, “They all ask me ‘Do you have a girls’ team? We want to start with girls’.” She puts this down to grass-roots demand and the availability of subsidies for women’s teams. When she put out a call to form a women’s team to play in the Catalan league (CeleBreak has applied for federated club status) she was inundated with responses. But, she says, it’s not only women embracing the game, “I go to the Barcelona Femení games and there are many people, also a lot of men.” 

Women’s football and the WWC come in for criticism both in terms of teams’ quality and mismatched games (the USA thrashed Thailand 13-0 in their first game). However, Brit feels this is the nature of any international tournament and blames disparities on a number of factors, including the fact that women’s football is 50 years behind the men’s game. Taking the example of Thailand, she says, “It’s a different culture … Super difficult to get girls to play there because of culture, religion, and then there's no budget, so how do you expect to have a girls’ team there with quality?” She believes women’s football will catch up but needs time, investment, more promotion by the authorities and to become an attractive, viable option for young girls. Salary equality would go a long way towards this, “I think Lieke Martens earns, like, a hundred thousand per year, which is nothing.”

As well as building community on the pitch, CeleBreak organizes post-match beers, swims, barbeques, dinners and get-togethers to watch televised or live matches. Brit says, “It's very international, but we also have more and more locals which is super nice,” adding, “We have girls from Ecuador, Iceland, Japan, Netherlands, Canada, States … everybody's welcome, your level doesn't matter, where you're from doesn't matter, we're one, we're open and we want to play for fun.” 

Kate Williams is a freelance writer, editor, translator and Director of The Writer Stuff. She left her native England for Barcelona in 2003 and never looked, or went, back. When she isn’t writing or discovering all the cool stuff going on in the city, she enjoys hiking in the Catalan countryside, kayaking on the Costa Brava, and volunteers at a local animal sanctuary. You can read more by Kate here.