Irene Paredes, Barça center back and captain of the Spanish team, already warned that, during the national team’s visit to the Congress of Deputies after winning the Nations League, she asked that “beyond words, we must support women’s sport with deeds.” . We need laws to be written and passed that help us, protect us and take care of us. With the right tools we are capable of doing very big things,” she noted.
In that sense, the Barça women’s players spoke. This morning the captains Alexia Putellas, Irene Paredes, Sandra Paños and Marta Torrejón and the players Mapi León, Aitana Bonmatí, Mariona Caldentey and Caroline Graham Hansen showed their concern about the future of League F in a meeting with Beatriz Álvarez, president of the competition. During the meeting, which was held in Barcelona, ??the players showed their disagreement with how the competition was being managed by both the board and the RFEF.
The players requested more efforts to make the F League a powerful competition. There is hardly any competition. Not even the arrival of the women’s Real Madrid, which landed in 2020, has managed to break Barcelona’s hegemony, in part, due to its low profile and budget. It was proven in the last classic in which there was hardly any emotion. Barcelona, ??current champion, was much superior. They won 0-3 and added their fourteenth victory in the League to now put twelve points ahead of a rival, again without too many offensive arguments. And there are now 16 Barça victories in the classics with an overall score of 64-7, including the first two against CD Tacón, the club that Real Madrid bought to turn it into its women’s team and that in 2020 already began participating with the Madrid shield on the numbers. The white team led by Alberto Toril has lost all 14 classics and this season also suffers a decline in the rest of the designated events.
The blaugranas showed their concern about the level of the Spanish competition in comparison with the big bets made by other big women’s leagues, such as the Women’s Premier, the French, the German or the American league where big names are making their way, both as players and men. coaches. The last one is Jonatan Giráldez, who will leave the Barcelona bench at the end of the season to start a new challenge in the United States. In addition, Giráldez’s players confirmed the competitive decline in the F League, the decrease in spectators in the stadiums or the fact that competition is still being played on artificial grass playing fields.
FC Barcelona are also concerned about the future of League F, not because of Barça’s project, but because of the project within the competition. This issue was discussed at the meeting that the board of directors held this Tuesday. In this sense, club sources admit concern about the future of the competition and point out that more and more offers are arriving from foreign clubs willing to pay the clauses to acquire the services of the Barça players who are attracted by more competition. So the possibility that they could leave the club is increasingly real.
For the current 2023-24 season, FC Barcelona has calculated in its report an expenditure budget of 14.4 million euros and one of 17.5 kilos in ordinary income. Of the money that comes out of the club, no less than 8.7 million are used to pay the salaries of the players, among whom are the last two winners of the Ballon d’Or, Alexia Putellas – twice -, who is negotiating to renew, and Aitana Bonmatí, with a contract until 2025. These figures contrast with Real Madrid’s budget of 9 million euros.
In this sense, the Blaugrana club maintains the idea that League F should be more competitive and if not, the Blaugrana club would welcome a great European project such as the Women’s Super League which, a priori, would be more competitive and would generate more income.
