Hair
This Thursday, November 21 and Friday, November 22, the Ficoba Fairgrounds, in Irun, was the scene of the I International Women’s Football Congress, an innovative meeting on the Spanish scene. For two days, the event has brought together renowned figures from sports, medicine and other disciplines to address the challenges, opportunities and progress in the professionalization of women’s football.
In this context Hoy poy Hoy Euskadi has moved to this venue in the border town to cover this event organized by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa. Eva Monente, Roberto Ramajo and Mikel Abascal have extensively monitored the second day of this pioneering event in the State.
A special program with some elite guests who have taken an x-ray of the journey of women’s football: where it comes from, where it is and where it is going. Among them was the sports director of Real Sociedad, Garbiñe Etxebarria.
In the image, Garbiñe Etxeberria, Sports Director of Real Sociedad and Lola Romero, sports director of Atlético de Madrid and pioneer in the dissemination of women’s sports.
Build, fall and rise
“We continue to build, grow and get the best out of women’s football to leave it to those who will come,” said Etxebarria. He also defended that the level is “very high”, but that they were “non-conformists” and were going for more.
Natalia Arroyo, coach of Real Sociedad between 2020 and 2024, has participated in the same sense, and has valued having an opportunity that those who preceded her did not have: “Our mothers and grandmothers did not have the opportunity to play sports even though maybe they wanted to; Today I am unable to live without my 3 days a week of football.”
Regarding the trajectory of women in this sport, Lola Romero, sports director of Atlético de Madrid and judoka, assured that despite being far from the conditions of the men’s league, great steps have been taken: “We come from dirt fields, of not being heard or of no one knowing us because we did not appear on home television.”
The one who was the winner of the Spanish Judo camp in 1984 assures that this sport was useful for her later career in soccer: “Judo taught me to fall, get up and continue; “That in the football world is a very real topic.”
Judo taught me to fall, get up and continue; That in the football world is a very real topic.
— Lola Romero, sports director of Atlético de Madrid and judoka,
Regarding the differences with the men’s teams, they point out that there is still some way to go, but they also value having that reflection. “We are lucky to have the reflection of men’s football to see what to do and what mistakes we don’t want to make,” explained Lola Romero.
Sexual assaults in sports
This congress included the participation of Goizane Álvarez, provincial deputy for Culture, Cooperation, Youth and Sports of Gipuzkoa. The person in charge of organizing the event has also been to the microphones of Hoy por Hoy Euskadi where she has pointed out the importance of identifying and talking about sexual assaults in football and sports.
“With Luis Rubiales’ kiss at the World Cup, we saw that it is a matter of training our eyes to identify these abuses,” he defended. In addition, he maintained that advances in women’s soccer would also benefit other sports: “They are advances in equality.” , Goizane Álvarez.
