The F League will kick off the 2023/24 season with its first matchday on September 8, less than three weeks after the Spanish women’s soccer team was crowned world champion this Sunday, August 20 in the World Cup. of FIFA that has been played these days in Australia and New Zealand. The Spanish thus ‘placed’ their first star in the women’s elastic after completing a great tournament and taking victory in the final against England with a goal from Sevillian Olga Carmona during the first part of the match. The performance of the Spanish players has been a complete success, adding value and new, juicier contracts for this competition.
The historic performance of the Spanish team in the most important national team tournament in the world has revived interest in women’s football in the country, which was already reinforced last season as it was the first year in which the highest football competition The national women’s league was played as a professional league after the authorization of the Higher Sports Council (CDS) in 2021 that this competition lived on public subsidies, now many sponsorship contracts and player signings are going to be renewed and expanded.
The F League has been the third with the greatest representation in this World Cup, only behind the English and the American, since 60 of the participants play in the Spanish First Division. The final, in which both Spain and England will try to win their first world title, will have 24 players who play in the F League, 22 of them within ‘La Roja’.
Women’s soccer gains audience and sponsors
The rise of women’s sports has been reflected in changes in its audience demographics. Since the previous World Cup Final, held in 2019, the fans of women for F Pusho have accelerated more than men, especially in Parents ES with strong national women’s leagues and good results in international competitions.
In Spain, the percentage of women who say they are followers of the sport has reached 48% compared to 43% in 2019, while male fans have only risen one percentage point from 68% in 2019, according to Brand Finance. The Sports Habits Survey prepared by the CSD also revealed that in 2022 18.6% of men and 10.4% of women consumed women’s soccer at some point, which places the average at 14.4%, 6.2% more than in 2020.
This increase in support has been reflected in the companies willing to finance the 16 clubs that make up the Spanish Women’s First Division. In the previous season, sponsorship agreements increased by 11.3%, reaching 168 agreements with 141 different brands, a figure that legal operators and sponsorship managers consider to be far exceeded this season now that the players de Vilda have been crowned world champions.
In addition, the professional category reached an agreement with LaLiga, through which it became the exclusive commercial agent for the women’s competition for the next five seasons, reporting a minimum income of 42 million euros for League F.
The broadcast rights for the women’s league were awarded at the beginning of September 2022 to DAZN and Mediapro, with a contract that will produce seven million euros a year for the next five seasons. The sports-focused streaming platform will have the right to broadcast the eight matches played on each day, while only one of them can be seen openly through Gol Play.
A season full of complications
Despite having overcome the barrier of professionalization, the 2022/23 season of the F League was marked by disagreements, especially regarding the financing dedicated to the women’s competition, from the first day, which was delayed by an arbitration break. The RFEF professionals argued that the conditions and salaries at the time were not worthy of a professional league and they reached an agreement with the competition bodies.
The controversies continued until the end of the season, when Finetwork, the main sponsor of the F League, refused to pay the four million euros that were agreed before the start of the competition, claiming they had no contractual obligation to do so. The company has explained that what was agreed was only an interest agreement in force until November that was not executed, while from the League they affirm that the sponsorship contract is binding for both parties.
The F League players, represented by the five women’s soccer unions, continue to show their disagreement with some of the efforts of the league’s managers, jointly requesting in May a modification of the collective agreement to increase wages. They propose to guarantee a base salary of 30,000 euros in 2026, a figure far from the 182,046 euros per season that male professionals earn.
