As the Japan and USA teams ready themselves for this weekend’s women’s World Cup soccer final, Spanish fans have been treated to myriad repetitions of the Andrés Iniesta goal which brought Spain global glory in South Africa one year ago. But what of the Spanish women’s team? And does anyone care? This summer’s World Cup in Germany has been the biggest in terms of media attention and public interest in the history of the women’s game, hosted as it is by a country which has managed to develop female soccer along the same lines as the man’s sport – in part due to the the commitment to women athletes shown by the former east German regime. Spain, as it happens, failed to qualify, being pipped by England in its preliminary group. In fact, Spain’s women have not featured in any of the six such events organized by Fifa since 1991. Isn’t it strange in such a soccer-obsessed nation that the Swedish and Danish teams, to take two examples, consistently outperform far more populous Spain?
And it’s not just soccer where Spain’s women are seemingly condemned to trudge far behind the footsteps of their feted male counterparts. Tennis offers a poignant example. In the 1990s Arantxa Sánchez and Conchita Martínez were way ahead of Spain’s men. Replacements did not come through as the likes of Moyà, Ferrero and Nadal joined the victorious cavalcade of Spanish sport in the 21st century. These things run in cycles, maybe, but what is striking is how few now seem to mourn the huge disparity between the men and women’s game in Spain to the point where even the triumphs that female players have achieved tend to be entirely overlooked.
Anabel Medina and Virginia Ruano were French Open women’s double champions in 2008 and 2009, but I recall looking for a report on one of those victories in the (lengthy) sports section of EL PAÍS and being genuinely shocked to find that that Spanish success in a Grand Slam event final had been tacked on as a final paragraph to a report on a male player, who had not at that point won anything.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, just four of the 16 medals won by Spaniards in individual disciplines (two more medals were won in sailing, which is mixed) went to women.
The female basketball team has been consistently successful, picking up a range of European Championship medal and a bronze at the most recent worlds. Players such as Amaya Valdemoro may not be household names but they get enough air time with the national team to be recognized here and there. But someone like Amaya should be used to attention – she has played in the WNBA!
But back to soccer. Spain’s female Superliga has been up and running for over 20 years. So guess who the 2010-11 champion was... Barcelona? Real Madrid? Maybe Valencia? Wrong, wrong, wrong. Rayo Vallecano won it for the third straight year, ahead of Espanyol, very much Barcelona’s second club in the men’s game. But you won’t have seen it on television, interspersed with ads in which women jockey for position in front of the screen in a packed bar. Real Madrid ladies does not even exist. A former coach of Athletic Bilbao’s women’s team once told me that until Real joined the Superliga, the women’s game was condemned to remain anonymous. It’s not that I have any special desire to see the duopoly of the two mega-moneyed teams in the men’s game become a similarly overbearing presence in women’s soccer. But the media lure of a women’s clásico would raise the profile, and the pressure and the scrutiny could help raise the standard.
So why the mismatch between men and women? Pure, traditional machismo? Surely not. And there are the Arantxas and the Amayas to confound the sexist stereotypists. The trail has been blazed. Children in public schools in Spain tend to get around a couple of hours a week of physical education, where the emphasis is understandably on basic gymnastic skills. Perhaps girls with promise are less likely than boys to be taken to a club to hone that talent. When this happens, then Spain will become a true global sporting power.
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I'm an American women in my 40's and was in the first generation of women playing football (soccer). In 1972 our federal government passed a law, Title IX, requiring all schools elementary to college to treat men and women equally in sports. They have to have the same amount of athletes, equal budgets, and equipment and field access. Before that nothing was equal and women's sports were limited. The prominence of American women in virtually all sports is due to the Title IX. There is no similar law in Spain?
Publicado por: Susan | 20/07/2011 20:31:52
The post is ridiculous.
You acuse of machismo because we spanish don't attend to the female tournament.
The female world championship was so famous this time because USA was on the final. Do you want me to think ESPN would make it the second news of the day if the USA had fallen on quarters ?
In the male tournament u did that. A lot of TV coverage till USA fell out vs Ghana. Then no headlines at all.
TV emits what people like. I dont think US is a machism society because female american football is not a TV show.
Publicado por: Locke | 18/07/2011 12:07:55
As of midnight on Sunday, the front page of the País online edition has 3 articles about the Copa América and none about the most incredible Womens World Cup Finals. How can that be? The País is showing, despite its Leftist heritage, a banal and poco periodista level of machismo. The great story, the only story, tonight, is that Japan and the United States played a match for the ages.
RH, United States.
Publicado por: Robert | 18/07/2011 1:42:04
"Javier 17/07/2011 13:24:46" I didn't mean that women sports is trend #1 in the US media, but at least they show some attention. Yes if you open ESPN the story #1 is golf, and #2...Women soccer final, as it has been for the last 2 weeks. Try to find anything about this in Spanish newspapers. It takes a while, believe me. If you want to know who won the spanish women superliga...you have to google it (It was Rayo Vallecano, to save you time). Anyways I hope we all enjoy a great game today! Viva el futbol!
Publicado por: Rosa | 17/07/2011 18:37:41
I just read that there are 8 million women and girls playing soccer in the US ( WSJ). There is another reason why the national team is so good.
And no, women´s soccer doesn not have to be slow or boring. It can be very good. Not all men´s soccer is that good either.
Publicado por: ramon | 17/07/2011 17:29:40
I am Spanish, I live in USA, and I have a 9 year old daughter who plays soccer, and she is really good at it. I am thinking about returning to Spain, and checking in the web how to continue to develop her talent in Spain, and it really seems difficult. I also have to say that here there are lots of clubs girls where the girls can play soccer, but they are also expensive. Those who don't support women's soccer, please open your minds, it is really fun to see them, and they are not slow or boring at all.
Publicado por: Montserrat | 17/07/2011 15:59:07
I am Spanish, I live in USA, and I have a 9 year old daughter who plays soccer, and she is really good at it. I am thinking about returning to Spain, and checking in the web how to continue to develop her talent in Spain, and it really seems difficult. I also have to say that here there are lots of clubs girls where the girls can play soccer, but they are also expensive. Those who don't support women's soccer, please open your minds, it is really fun to see them, and they are not slow or boring at all.
Publicado por: Montserrat | 17/07/2011 15:59:06
I am Spanish, I live in USA, and I have a 9 year old daughter who plays soccer, and she is really good at it. I am thinking about returning to Spain, and checking in the web how to continue to develop her talent in Spain, and it really seems difficult. I also have to say that here there are lots of clubs girls where the girls can play soccer, but they are also expensive. Those who don't support women's soccer, please open your minds, it is really fun to see them, and they are not slow or boring at all.
Publicado por: Montserrat | 17/07/2011 15:59:06
I am Spanish, I live in USA, and I have a 9 year old daughter who plays soccer, and she is really good at it. I am thinking about returning to Spain, and checking in the web how to continue to develop her talent in Spain, and it really seems difficult. I also have to say that here there are lots of clubs girls where the girls can play soccer, but they are also expensive. Those who don't support women's soccer, please open your minds, it is really fun to see them, and they are not slow or boring at all.
Publicado por: Montserrat | 17/07/2011 15:59:06
I am Spanish, I live in USA, and I have a 9 year old daughter who plays soccer, and she is really good at it. I am thinking about returning to Spain, and checking in the web how to continue to develop her talent in Spain, and it really seems difficult. I also have to say that here there are lots of clubs girls where the girls can play soccer, but they are also expensive. Those who don't support women's soccer, please open your minds, it is really fun to see them, and they are not slow or boring at all.
Publicado por: Montserrat | 17/07/2011 15:59:06
Women play football much slower, that's what makes it more boring and less interesting.
That's it. I'm spanish and I'm not machista.
Publicado por: albers | 17/07/2011 13:38:04
I am a Spaniard living in CA. Rosa, you don't need to be in the USA to see it on ESPN (I am in Spain now, and watched the 3rd place game yesterday on Eurosport and am planning to watch the final tonight). Male sports overwhelmingly exceed broadcast time on US' ESPNs, FoxSports, VS, etc, regardless of how those teams or individuals perform. Or just log on to ESPN.com on any given day (even today, the headline is for the male British open!) That said, the article is not so much about coverage by media as to opportunities to succeed, and I agree that, in general, women athletes in the US are better supported from kindergartner to college than their Spanish counterparts.
Publicado por: Javier | 17/07/2011 13:24:46
I think this article is absolutely bias as it's basing it on a very specific example.. Everyone back in the 90's adored Arantxa or Conchita, they were the only representation Spain had back then...And also, why don't we do it the other way round? Where were Japan and US national teams on the male World Cup?Or even Sweden and Denmark at some point? They didn't even qualify...Does that mean in those countries they support more female football? By the way, we are in Europe. We don't know what soccer is but we do Football...
Publicado por: Hector | 17/07/2011 12:28:23
Tapia.
Women´s Ice Hockey in the US is doing very well, as is Soccer in the UK. They were in the World Cup, and did reasonably well.
Publicado por: ramon | 17/07/2011 3:20:35
Jaime, the women on the Japanese team are rather small. They are in the final.
There is no coverage at all in Spain ,which is too bad, because the game played last week between Brazil and the US has to be one of the most riveting games ever played in any sport, male or female.
Perhaps the answer is Title IX, or in the case of Spain the absence there of, or of a similar law.
Publicado por: ramon | 17/07/2011 3:16:07