Women's football in Spain

Women's football was recorded as being played in Spain as early as the 1910s.[8] The first known women's football teams in Spain were founded in Barcelona in 1914, inspired by reports of teams playing in England. A small football association, the Spanish Girl's Club, was set up and sponsored two teams, Montserrat and Giralda. They played their first match on 9 June 1914; both teams were initially coached by Jack Greenwell[9]^{: 315–317} when he was also player-coach of the Barcelona men's team,[10] and then by Paco Bru. Despite becoming popular and playing well enough that one sports paper said they would soon be able to compete with men's second or youth teams,[11] the teams did not last long. The Spanish Girl's Club stopped playing due to World War I.[9]^{: 315–317}

During the 1920s, female footballers such as Ana Carmona Ruiz (who dressed up as a male) and Irene González played games for male teams.[12] Though women's sport grew in the 1920s, football was not one, with some exhibition games played but also deemed sexist and simply for male entertainment. The outlook was more positive in the early 1930s. In 1932, another association was created, this time in Valencia, for women's teams to play each other and develop the sport. It quickly sponsored four professional teams – Levante, España, Atlético and Valencia – which toured Spain and Latin America. FC Barcelona added Ana María Martínez Sagi, who believed in feminism through sports, to its board of directors in 1934. The arrival of the Spanish Civil War effectively shut women out of football.[9]^{: 320–321}

Between the 1930s and 1975, during the Franco regime, women were forbidden from playing football.[12] Despite this, in 1971, Victoria Hernández became the first female footballer to sign a "professional" contract. The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) did not recognize women's football until 1980.[13] Women did not have a national league until 1988.[14] In 2019 the Spanish FA committed to spending $20 million in the area of women's football.[15]

The first teams and the first informal women's football competitions in Spain emerged in the 1970s, although they were not officially recognized by the Royal Spanish Football Federation until 1980, with the founding of the National Women's Football Committee.[16] The first official national competition was the Copa de la Reina, established in 1983.[17] The women's national league began to dispute the 1988-89 season.[18]

Primera División is the national competition for female football players in Spain.[19]

Below the Primera División, there is a second tier called Primera Federación, where its teams are divided into seven groups.[20] In 2020 Primera Federación teams became full time professionals.[21]

The lower tiers are administered by the regional federations.[20]

The Spain women's national football team has qualified three times to the FIFA Women's World Cup, and three times in the UEFA Women's Championship.[22] The furthest the senior national team has reached at international competition is the semi-finals at UEFA Women's Euro 1997.[23][24] The women's national U-20 team were runner-ups at the 2018 U-20 World Cup. The U-19 national team won the UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship in 2004, 2017, and 2018.[25] The national U-17 team also won the U-17 European Championship in 2010, 2011, 2015and 2018, as well as becoming the champion at the 2018 U-17 World Cup and finalists in the 2014 U-17 World Cup.[26] Spain's greatest achievement was winning 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.[27]

• Football in Spain
• Spain women's national football team
• List of foreign Liga F players