It had been five years since FC Barcelona had lost at home. Chelsea, last Saturday in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final, was a headache. And also the most serious rival of the entire season for the Blaugranas. Because in League F they have dominated for years with a monopoly on victory: with eight league titles in their pockets, they are leaders this season with a nine-point difference over second-placed Real Madrid. The third, Madrid CFF, has 21 points. With 102 goals scored and only six conceded, Barça’s hegemony in Spain is evident. But outside, in Europe, everything is complicated, and even more so when compared with an English club and with a League – the Women’s Super League – reinforced by its institutions, with fewer clubs in competition – 16 compared to 12 – and a much higher level. tight.
“The defeat at Barça’s home after five years is normal and it is not, at the same time. In the Spanish League we have a competitiveness problem. It is not Barça’s fault, but rather the other teams’ fault. And the ambition and objectives of each club with women’s football. All of this is conditioned by a League that probably still does not provide enough incentives or that does not demand what is necessary,” Juan Carlos Amorós, former coach of the Tottenham women’s team for almost 10 years, of Betis and currently in charge of the bench of the American Gotham. Amorós summarizes the reason for the difference with the English: “In England there are more clubs that do everything possible to win and the level of investment and organization is higher.”
An opinion that is also shared by Lluís Cortés, former Barça coach: “It is in games like these where we can see the difference in competitiveness between the F League and the English League, where the results of an investment and growth project can be seen.” A few weeks ago, the president of League F, Beatriz Álvarez, met with the captains of the culé locker room in a routine session visiting the clubs. In that meeting, the players expressed their disquiet with the low level of the competition. “I would like the League to be more competitive, it would help us grow even more,” soccer player Aitana Bonmatí recently shared.
Natalia Pablos, former Rayo Vallecano player, experienced first-hand the inequalities between both leagues when she went to Bristol Academy and Arsenal. “A League with so much difference is counterproductive for Barça. The ambition of the Barça players is enormous. But unconsciously, when you are 4-0 on the scoreboard, you lower your level. At Chelsea they can’t afford that in their league,” explains the former soccer player, who learned the importance of the gym there. “In England all the games were very physical. Here you have to motivate yourself to get the three points or even to give your best version,” shared Ona Batlle, a Barça footballer who arrived this summer from Manchester United, in an interview with EL PAÍS. The one from Vilassar de Mar also highlighted the need for a more attractive product, in which artificial grass fields begin to be part of the past and the stands begin to fill up.
“The main difference is that the English federation, which has supported the clubs since the 2012 Games, goes hand in hand with the teams, while here they fight,” Pablos shares. Bonmatí, the latest winner of the Ballon d’Or, the Laureus award for best athlete of the year, compared both competitions to the BBC: “(In England) you treat women’s sport very well, you give power to the players and the league. In Spain I can’t say the same. I also see that the league in England is very competitive, every year they inject more money to develop it and make it more attractive.”
According to a report by Deloitte, of the 15 women’s clubs with the highest income generated last season, eight are English – Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea, among others – while only two are Spanish: Barcelona, leader with 13.4 million euros, and Real Madrid, third. The English clubs increased their income by 60% in the 2021-2022 season, reaching a combined turnover of 37.4 million.
The sponsorship agreement with Barclays allows the English league to pocket 11.5 million euros annually until at least 2025, while the television rights belong to Sky Sports and the BBC for nine million annually from 2021.
The F League, for its part, said goodbye to its main sponsor, Finetwork, before starting this season. As for the television rights, it is DAZN and Mediapro who pay. They reached an agreement in 2022 for five seasons in exchange for 35 million of which the competition has distributed 5.7 million among the clubs this season. In addition, the Spanish League has a subsidy of five million this year from the Higher Sports Council.
However, the big concern is the possible flight of players. “The level in Spain, in terms of football, is higher, but the possibilities of development at a professional level are light years away from England and the United States. I am afraid of the drain on talent,” Amorós shares. On Saturday, Barcelona will meet again against Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge. A unique opportunity to be in the Champions League final again and forget about a defeat that put an end to their unbeaten record.
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