Ten facts you didn't know about women and their role in professional football

 

Today, to mark International Women's Day, LALIGA brings together 10 key facts about the  role women play in the industry which point to a promising future.

• 37% of the LALIGA Management Committee are women. In total there are seven female directors on this committee, a significant figure if we take into account that the average for IBEX 35 companies is 16.5%, according to data published in the Second 2023 Report of Women in key positions in IBEX 35 companies^[1].

• There are four LALIGA clubs with female presidents: Currently, Amaia Gorostiza at SD Eibar; Layhoon Chan at Valencia CF; Marián Mouriño at RC Celta and Sophia Yang at Granada CF, are the four female presidents of LALIGA EA SPORTS clubs or sports associations. Alongside them, other women occupy important positions, such as Laura Valdeolivas, CEO of LEGENDS, The Home of Football presented by LALIGA. Her arrival to the project, which is supported by LALIGA and UEFA, aims to boost its growth at the domestic and international level.

• There are 12 LALIGA clubs with professional teams in Liga F. And 85% of LALIGA clubs have a professional women's team. In total, there are 330 professional female players in this competition and more than 92,000 federated women, a figure that has doubled in the last 10 years. Additionally, the Plan for the Improvement and Optimisation of Youth Academies, within the BOOST LALIGA project, includes objectives for the growth of grassroots women's football. In year two of the Plan, significant progress has been made in the creation and development of women's youth teams: 85% of the clubs have already created, or are in the process of creating, women's teams in their youth ranks.
• LALIGA, committed to women's football. Since 2015, LALIGA has been investing effort and professional dedication in the development and 1.     promotion of women's football. In 2022, LALIGA signed an agreement with Liga F to support its growth and professionalisation, providing advice and services in areas such as marketing and the sale of audiovisual rights, among other things.

 

• LALIGA promotes women's football globally. It has signed collaboration and knowledge-sharing agreements with various women's leagues around the world, such as the Nigeria Women Football League in Nigeria and the Nadeshiko League in Japan, among many others.
• There’s a women's team in LALIGA ACADEMY. This season an U17 women's team was created with 18 players, many of whom received scholarships from EA SPORTS as part of the FC FUTURES project. Furthermore, there are female players all over the world training at LALIGA projects in countries such as India, Brazil, United Arab Emirates and China.
• There are 184 women in LALIGA GENUINE. The first league in the world for people with intellectual disabilities, created by FUNDACIÓN LALIGA, has almost 200 women in its ranks, including professional players and members of the coaching staff.
• Almost 20% of LALIGA BUSINESS SCHOOL students are women. Since its creation in 2018, the number of female students has doubled from 7% to 18%.
• Women who bring visibility and raise awareness. There are three female footballers among the LALIGA Ambassadors who help to take LALIGA's programmes further, and serve to inspire future generations of girls who look up to them as role models. Vero Boquete, Aintzane Encinas and Anaïr Lomba are the three ambassadors, and are joined by seven women who provide a voice to LALIGA TV broadcasts.
• International projects that empower women. FUNDACIÓN LALIGA carries out projects all over the world that try to help girls and women, giving them visibility, empowering them and providing them with resources to help in their daily lives, always using the values of football. Under this principle, projects such as La Ligue d'Egalité (Cameroon), the first league in the country that trains girls and female coaches, and allows them to play in a regular socio-sporting competition, are carried out. There's also the LALIGA Za'atari project, in the refugee camp in Jordan, and the Rural League of Anantapur (India), where the growth of women has been extremely significant in recent years.

Work still to be done

In contrast to these figures, those published by the Third "Women in Executive Education in the Sports Sector" Study presented by LALIGA BUSINESS SCHOOL and the Spanish Association of Women, Executives and Sport (AEMED) highlight the need to continue working in this area. Only 22% of students studying for Master's degrees in sports management and administration are women. In contrast, an encouraging statistic published by the study shows that there is a higher employability rate for women (87%) than for men (84%) in the industry.

These are some of the figures that show the presence of women in the industry is growing and, above all, they are playing increasingly important roles. LALIGA will continue to fight to break down gender barriers in an industry that, although predominantly male, is beginning to show signs of a much more equal future.