What most impacted the journalist when he went to meet him were his hands. Granite. Cracked. "It's true, I had a bit of a tough childhood."

Joan Laporta

, president of Barcelona that January 2005, had signed the Mexican

Maribel Domínguez

, whom they called

Marigol

, for the neglected women's section of Barça football

. The forward, who as a child posed as Mario to play, had become a celebrity after Celaya tried to incorporate her into their men's team. They thought about setting up a shower for her in the locker room.

Blatter's

FIFA

it prohibited it, and Barcelona saw in it an opportunity that nobody knew or wanted to make profitable. The female Barça had just promoted to the then called Superliga, wandering through the underworld of the table with a victory in 16 games (51 goals against and 18 in favor).

Marigol

made his debut scoring three goals for Torrejón. He managed to get his team to avoid relegation. A year and a half later it was not renewed and went to play at Euromat Estartit in the second division. The Barça budget then became the lowest (100,000 euros) in a category in which the highest salary for a footballer was 1,500 euros. Although it was customary not to charge.

Things have changed. Barcelona women have been proclaimed league champions for the sixth time in their history. Eight days from the conclusion of the championship, winning his 26 games and with an overwhelming superiority (128 goals for and five against). Its budget is the highest in the category (4.1 million euros), but it is also the only Barça section practically self-sufficient (1.1 million in losses due to Covid). This past summer he did not make signings. Accompany foreign figures (

Lieke Martens

or

Caroline Graham Hansen

) with the best national talent (

Alexia Putellas

,

Jennifer Hermoso

,

Mapi León

or

Sandra Paños

) and the structural protection of La Masia (

Aitana Bonmatí

,

Patri Guijarro

or

Bruna Vilamala

).

He has renewed one more year his coach,

Lluís Cortés

, who takes care of the idiosyncrasy in the game.

On Sunday he will play his second Champions League final against the English champion, a Chelsea that doubles his budget.

Clubs like Lyon, PSG or Wolfsburg are also superior.

Barça can now compete with full guarantees in Europe.

It is even in a position to dominate the continent.

Their Spanish rivals, however, have lagged far behind.

Why?

Facilities, food, doctors ...

"It is not about putting money in and thinking that everything is going to work out. Soccer players must be given the opportunity and the space they deserve to train like any elite athlete," says

Maria Teixidor

, an icon for this time of success and a reference in the professionalization of women's Barcelona from 2015 - former vice president

Jordi Mestre

it already began to lead the way between 2010 and 2014-. "One of the main aspects is to give correct conditions for training. The better you train, the better you will play. And what is a good training? It goes through putting means. Coaching staff, facilities, food, medical follow-up ...". And Teixidor rescues a clarifying example. And crude: "Your body is not prepared to train at night. You perform much more if you train in the morning. But you can only do it if they give you a field. If the mornings are reserved for the first men's team, then for the B team , then for the juvenile, and women are at the end of that chain, you're already going against biology. "

Although the importance of incorporating a feminine look into such a masculinized professional context has also helped Barcelona in its success. This is how Teixidor understands it: "Barça has a brutal, world-class medical structure. But it did not have women in its team. We were open a bit to listen to what female medical professionals were telling us about what women's health is and how. There are realities that we have to approach from a female medical health perspective. The player will find herself much more comfortable speaking to a woman who understands her physiology, and it will make a difference in the training load or the times in which she has to do one exercise or another ".

"There are teams in the Iberdrola League that do not have their own playing field and that change training fields every week," intervenes

María José López

, co-director of the legal services of the soccer players' union (AFE). "There are clubs that have bet For women's football, they have professionalized it, not only in the field of work of the players, but also in the structures. For there to be a certain equality it is essential to work on that. It is not the same to be in a club that has its gym, its field, their doctors, their physiotherapists or that it takes two hours to make a trip when another team takes ten.

"It is not possible to allow that in a league there are players sharing the same playing field, and that some have a labor contract with their rights to vacations, disability, their days off 100% of the contract ... And that they play against others with a high partiality or other salaries. It is discriminatory and unfair, "continues López.

"It is important to allow the players to be released from a double workday: the sports professional and the foreign work because your sportsman's salary does not give you. As soon as you release a player from having to earn her bread elsewhere, your job is what it should be, train and get the most out of it. We have achieved something, yes, because we came from very low. But we do not have to launch rockets because we are very far from that equality that the Constitution proclaims. It is very important that there be money for the entire league to ensure that all athletes can concentrate on their profession. It is a very basic and common sense measure to think that if one has a profession, one must be able to live from it ", says Teixidor,who became the first woman in the history of Barcelona to occupy the secretariat of the board during her time in the board of directors of

Josep Maria Bartomeu.

The management of women's football was perhaps the best legacy left by the former president.

Partiality and below the minimum wage

The AFE has denounced the collective agreement of the soccer players.

In it, a partiality of 75% is still allowed.

That is, the players may be forced to complete their day with another job.

"Has no sense.

It is anachronistic and shocking that there are still part-time players.

The union estimates that 20% of the soccer players in the Iberdrola League are still in that situation.

The minimum wage is 16,000 euros gross, far from the minimum interprofessional wage.

But only for full time.

It is 12,000 euros for part-time contracts.

"There are very big differences at the salary level," they continue from the footballers' union.

"When we put on the table the denunciation of the agreement, one of the conditions that arose was the modification of the minimum wage. Nor is it the same from that all the clubs have a budget of one million euros, to that one has 300,000 and another four million. There is a lot of difference. That goes to the detriment of the footballers' own conditions as professional workers. "

Attorney

Amanda Gutiérrez

, who legally advises several soccer players in the Iberdrola League from his professional office, also seeks answers to the differences that prevent there from being a certain balance in the conditions of the players when it comes to growing professionally: "A reflection that I arrive at after Working for footballers is that there are clubs that really look out for their good, and are more flexible when negotiating. For example leaving the club, removing it from the compensation list or lowering the price. On the other hand, there are other clubs That they close in band and it seems like a dictatorship. This forces the player to make two decisions: either to do nothing, or to get into legal trouble to defend her rights. This slows down women's football a lot.The clubs that are more closed at the end are those that later have more problems with those that do bet on their players. In the end, the footballer is the asset of the club. If you treat her badly, she will go away and only those who don't dare to speak will stay. "

The Ellas League

Things, in theory, should change. The Government plans to professionalize the competition from next season. "And there can no longer be partiality," warns the union. "If we make a professional league, and for this they have to clarify the issue of broadcasting rights, they will have to continue with the infrastructures. Women are already professionals. We do not doubt their professionalism, the other way around. They are an example of commitment. But all their surroundings must be professional too. It is the key and it will have to be regulated. We will ask that all have artificial or natural grass, that they have doctors, a training and competition field so that they do not have to wander. We will demand guarantees. A fund. If we already assume the wage gap,because you have to assume it, although from the point of view of labor law it is strange, all kinds of labor demands will have to be on the table ".

To the new competition, by the way, the Government has baptized it as Liga Ellas.

In case someone could be mistaken.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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