Women taking more important roles within La Liga all the time

Happy International Women’s Day from all of us at Futbolita. If any of you are considering a career in football, here’s an inspiring report from La Liga.

More and more women are taking on important roles within LaLiga, and those clubs with more diverse hiring policies are proving successful.

Leganes president Victoria Pavon, whose club organised a series of events around their 2-0 victory over Malaga last weekend to mark International Women’s Day (IWD) this Thursday March 8, is one of two female presidents in LaLiga, along with Amaia Gorostiza at Eibar.

Great success for both clubs off the pitch in recent years serves as a positive example of what clubs with equality of opportunity in hiring policies can achieve.

“Of course women can fit perfectly into a sporting project, and are better prepared for it all the time,” Pavon says. “In LaLiga there are no quotas, it is about hiring the right people. If there is equality of opportunity then more women will enter for sure.”

All LaLiga clubs now employ female staff in a variety of different roles, including important decision-makers within the organisation and staff working day to day with players. For example Luz Monzon is press chief at Getafe, Ainhoa Prieto nutritionist at Alaves and Raquel Urbano fitness coach at Real Betis.

Eibar are the LaLiga club with most women in decision-making positions, including director general Patricia Rodriguez.

“My opinion is that diversity is always beneficial,” Rodriguez says. “Men and women bring different qualities, different ways to see things and resolve problems. That enriches the organisation, so it is an advantage.”

Rodriguez predicts that in future we will see more women in roles directly related to coaching the senior team or making transfer signings, especially with the development of LaLiga Iberdrola in recent years.

“It is a natural evolution,” she says. “Women’s football in Spain has come on a lot in the last two or three years, thanks to the initiatives of LaLiga and Iberdrola. As this develops, seeing female coaches or sporting directors will be much more common.”

Martina Olivas was recently appointed director of women’s football at LaLiga, having previously worked within the men’s game coordinating the LaLiga World Challenge and LaLiga Global Network in North and South America.

“We are in a moment of social change regarding the position of the women in the world, and in areas where they have not previously been protagonists,” Olivas says. “We have to change the view that football is a man’s business and game. Girls must learn that they can grow up to be whoever they want to be.”