The Women’s Football does not stop his step. With slow but firm footsteps, year after year its popularity and presence grows. In 2021, the AFA tournament was broadcast on Public Television and Argentina became the first country in South America to broadcast all matches live and direct.
In March 2019, the professionalization of women’s football in our country was made official, establishing a minimum of eight contracted players and a salary equivalent to a men’s First C contract. Currently the 21 clubs participating in the first division tournament must have at least twelve players as professionals with a contract registered in the AFA.
“I feel progress. Today we can play professionally when not long ago, only amateur. It is being given much more importance, vision and opportunities”, says Delfina Lombardi, the forward born in Bahía Blanca. Wearing the light blue and white, she will represent the country in the Conmebol U17 Women’s Tournament in Uruguay in 2022 with the aim of qualifying for the FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup.
“I have had to live from the moment in which we practically started the AFA tournaments, in the year 98 until 2012 when I retired, although I am still linked. I saw how he went from having nothing to watching the games on television. See sponsors that appear. Although we still need to improve the product, as long as sponsors continue to appear, growth can be continuous and not of the moment, “says Rosana Gómez, former Argentine National Team, World Cup player and current DT.
“La Zurda”, as they call Gómez, put on the DT shirt again after working in the Conmebol Development and Evolution area. He began playing in Rosario Central and then moved to Boca, where he won twelve titles. “We must strengthen all the agents that make up women’s football: coaches, managers and clubs. We need all those who make up the football ecosystem to make a place for women, ”he remarks.
The first division women’s soccer tournament began to be televised in 2021 by TV Pública and DeporTV. During the presentation at the AFA premises in Ezeiza, the Minister of Gender and Diversity, Elizabeth Gómez Alcorta, expressed: “It seemed incredible to arrive at a day like this, but here we are. This tournament will have a television that will allow thousands of girls to see that it is possible to fulfill their dream”.
“The fact that they broadcast the meetings on Public TV is a great advance. Women’s football has a lot of projection and we have to continue giving it opportunities as it is being done”, remarks Lombardi. “Having the opportunity to watch the games on television helps to grow, that more girls and more parents get closer to soccer and we begin to see this sport in a different way, with greater development,” adds the former player and current DT.
The YPF oil company is the official sponsor of the professional championship, on other occasions the tournament was sponsored by Rexona, Flybondi or Sara, the mobility application for women. “There is more interest from brands and sponsors for the public that women’s football is having. More and more girls play and the level increases, that brings more people who are interested in the sport and in turn the brands”, said Lombardi, who started in Bella Vista and currently plays in River Plate.
road to equality
In 2020, the local tournament was vacated after the AFA’s determination to end the competition without champions or relegation. At the end of that year, the Transition Championship began, which was completed in 2021 and in which a historic event took place: Mara Gómez became the first trans player to debut in the first division. “I never thought that she was going to reach professional soccer, it was something that I saw as difficult and that it was not going to happen,” says the 24-year-old player born in La Plata.
“Football marked a before and after in my life. It appeared in one of the most difficult moments, when I went through episodes of discrimination and exclusion. They were difficult times and that’s when I started playing, it was a means of containment, an anesthetic to pain”, says the striker who began her soccer career in a neighborhood league at the age of 15.
Gómez managed to break down the barriers of discrimination and exclusion to be who he dreamed of being. At 18, in La Plata there was already a women’s league and she was encouraged to try Toronto City, an amateur league club. She currently plays for Estudiantes de La Plata and passed through Villa San Carlos as her first experience in the AFA. “In each stage that I lived I had to pay costs for being a trans girl, that’s why I say that it was always difficult to do something as basic as sports,” she says.
world fight
The year 2022 began with a momentous event: the United States women’s soccer team reached an agreement with the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) to end the six-year legal battle over equal pay. Through the agreement, the USSF agreed to pay $24 million in bonuses to match the men’s pay. It was a victory that marked a path for other players.
In Argentina the story is different. “The girls cannot live directly from football, they have to look for a job. Those who can leave are going to other leagues and the local league is lost”, says Julia Paz Dupuy, player of the Argentine Futsal National Team that currently competes in the Spanish first division.
At just 22 years old, the National Team player is installed in Spain playing for Poio Pescamar FS because “you can’t make a living from women’s football in our country,” she explains. “In Argentina, policies are necessary that encourage female players to grow at a sporting level as elite soccer players,” she adds.
“A lot of time is given to football, he trains every day. Due to economic needs, the players cannot give one hundred percent when competing because some have to work and study,” says Mara Gómez, who during her years at university had to combine study and soccer. “I couldn’t choose whether to work, study or play sports. I wanted to do all three things because each one is something in my life. Really, if the conditions were different, we would not be so pressured by personal issues”, she adds.
“At this time, strategic sports plans are required to cover basic needs and rights for the players. The progress of recent years in women’s football is noticeable, but there are still players in teams that do not have contracts or decent conditions to train, “concludes Dupuy.
