Soccer in Spain

One of the first existing balls football (1924).

Soccer or football is the most popular sport in Spain. In the 2013 Global Report on the Consumption of Sports Content in Spain, among sports fans, soccer dominated all other sports (64% of adults were soccer fans, followed by 47% who were Formula 1 fans). and 41% to tennis). In addition, soccer is the sport that has the most federated players (a total of 942,674 of which 898,551 are men and 44,123 women) and more registered clubs (a total of 20,588) among all the Spanish sports federations, according to data published by the Higher Sports Council (CSD) in 2016. In a survey of sports habits of the Spanish population carried out in 2010, soccer was the second most practiced recreational sport by the population (17.9%). 75.9% of people stated that they had bought tickets to attend a football match. In addition, 67.3% of people said they had seen all, almost all, many or some of the football matches broadcast on television [4]. 67% of the population said they were fans of or sympathized with a particular club. In addition, 74.9% said that they watched, whenever possible, the matches broadcast on television about their favorite teams; and 42.4% had flags, shields or objects from their favorite teams. The data from this survey confirm the general impression that the majority of Spaniards are fans of Real Madrid (32.4%) or FC Barcelona (24.7%), and the other teams have fewer fans at the national level, such as Atlético de Madrid (16.1%), Valencia CF (3.5%), Athletic de Bilbao (3.3%) or Sevilla FC (3.2%). [7]

It is the third most frequently practiced recreational sport —in 2017 it was practiced by 6.5% of Spaniards behind running and aerobics— according to a study by the Association for Communication Media Research (AIMC), surpassing other sports such as yoga, and cardiovascular and bodybuilding activities in gyms.

In a survey carried out by the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) in 2010, 75.9% of the people surveyed said that they had ever bought tickets to attend a soccer match. The results indicated that soccer It was still the sport that most interested the majority of Spaniards with 64.6% fans or sympathy for a particular team. In addition, 46.1% said that they watched football on television, followed by basketball; and 9% had bought an item related to them in the last year. As of May 2017, the same AIMC survey established that the majority of the Spanish population was a supporter of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (30.2%) or Fútbol Club Barcelona (24.7%), and fans and supporters of other teams, such as Atlético de Madrid (7.1%), Valencia Club de Fútbol (4.1%), Athletic Club (3.9%) or Real Betis (3.2%), Real Zaragoza (2.2%) were a minority at the national level. As for the number of followers of Spanish football clubs on social networks, there were more than 450 million followers: Real Madrid Club de Fútbol 214.5 million, Fútbol Club Barcelona has 211.3 million, Atlético de Madrid 22.4 million, Athletic Club 3.6 million, Valencia Club de Fútbol 3.3 million, Sevilla FC 3.3 million, Real Betis 2.7 million, Real Sociedad 1, 9 million, Málaga CF 1.8 million, Villarreal CF 1.7 million, and the rest with figures of less than a million followers.

History

The Exiles Cable Club, the English club of Vigo, and one of the pioneers in Spain (1903).

The Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, the current dean club for Spanish football (1906).

Football was introduced to Spain by immigrant workers, especially British, towards the end of the 19th century. It was the English settled in the Minas de Riotinto, Huelva (Andalusia), in Jerez (Andalusia) and in Vigo (Galicia) who played the first matches around 1860. But it was also introduced into the educational field, just like tennis, through a type of unofficial private education whose innovative pedagogy did not neglect the joint formation of body and spirit in men and women, and thus the use of sport has been documented, and more specifically soccer and tennis, for the physical education of the students of the Anglophile Institución Libre de Enseñanza (1876-1936), as part of the pedagogy of Krausism.

In 1876 and 1878, the first Spanish “proto-clubs” arose: the Exiles Cable Club and the Río Tinto Foot-Ball Club. These companies, however, were not registered in any official registry, so there is no legal record of their existence. The first legally established Spanish football club was the Cricket and Foot-Ball (Club) of Madrid, in 1879, and it seems that it also began slight activities in 1878. Subsequently, the Huelva Recreation Club, current Real Club Recreativo de Huelva, emerged, which was established on December 18, 1889, being the Dean team of Spanish soccer, to be the oldest club with uninterrupted existence in Spain. A club was also established in Seville in 1890 due to the existing Scottish immigration at the end of the xix century, under the name of Seville Foot-Ball Club, that found the current Sevilla Football Club. In Albacete, workers from the railway industries began to play foot-ball through the Locomotoras Albacete Balón-Pié association, guided by English engineers who had moved to the city of La Mancha.

With the arrival of the XX century, soccer clubs (foot-ball at the time) began to proliferate throughout the country. These early societies were almost always founded by foreigners.

The rapid growth of enthusiasts and entities prompted the creation of the first associations in charge of its regulation. The first of these was the Foot-Ball Association established in Catalonia on November 11, 1900. The first competitions were also organized, such as the Copa Macaya created on January 6 of the following year by the Hispania Athletic Club. This competition was the predecessor of what would also be one of the first official football championships played in Spain, the Catalan Football Championship, which arose a few days after the Madrid Foot-Ball Association Championship of the same name.

The still poorly organized sport still found many detractors who prevented further expansion, since it was considered dangerous in its early years. In 1902 the first national competition was organized, the Madrid Foot-Ball Association Contest or popularly the Coronation Cup, organized by the Madrid Foot-Ball Club, which was the embryo of the current Copa del Rey due to its success and which was originally called the Spanish Championship.

It was not until 1909 that an association was seen for the first time at the national level that governed this sport. This was born on October 14 under the name of the Spanish Federation of Football Clubs, and a Spanish Union of Foot-ball Clubs was also created due to differences between the clubs. After adopting a consensus in 1910 and leaving all the clubs associated with the former, new discrepancies arose years later and thus the Royal Spanish Union of Football Clubs emerged. Both claimed their state official status and organized parallel Copa del Rey championships. Finally, and after the refusal of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the highest international soccer authority, to the entry of Spain as an associate for not accepting the coexistence of two national federations, both sign peace and their union on July 30, 1913. Thus, on September 29, the current Royal Spanish Football Federation was officially born, after King Alfonso XIII had granted the royal distinction. The Spanish team was created in 1920 for the Antwerp Olympic Games.

The first big change in Spanish football came in 1926 when, after a long debate process started in 1924, the clubs approved the First Regulation of Spanish Professional Soccer on June 30. Following the British model, it was like this the step towards professionalism, laying the foundations for the birth of a National Professional League Championship, the first edition of which was held in 1929. Previously, there was a first attempt to organize a championship that unfolded into two tournaments and which were never concluded due to the discrepancies between clubs and federations since it conflicted with the dates of the hitherto only competitions: the corresponding championships of each regional federation, and the aforementioned Spanish Cup Championship.

Soccer had a great following and continued to grow until the Spanish Civil War (July 18, 1936 to April 1, 1939). As a consequence of the war, there was an interruption in state-level football competitions, which resumed at the end of the war. Once Franco's dictatorship was established, changes were imposed, such as the obligation to have their names in Spanish, thus altering the original names of some teams that used English or some other peninsular language (Athletic Club was renamed Atlético de Bilbao, and Football Club Barcelona as Barcelona Football Club, to cite two examples). This imposition was maintained until 1972, and the teams that wished to include Anglicisms in their name, as well as return to their original names. During the Franco dictatorship, soccer acted as a means of social control and a mechanism of nationalization and propaganda through the Franco's appropriation of the victories of Spanish football and in the promotion of a collective identity of the Spaniards.

In the 1948-49 season, all the teams used numbers on their uniforms, introduced in the territory the previous season by Real Madrid, similar to English football. In 1965, one change per team was authorized, in addition to the substitution of the goalkeeper in case of injury (which had already been authorized in the 1929-30 season), and from the 1969-70 season it was extended to two changes.

In the 1970-71 season the cards began to be used, and at first the current yellow cards were white. In 1972 the case of the false natives was denounced, which uncovered the documentary fraud of South American players who had no ancestry After the failure of the Spanish team in the 1962 World Cup, the Royal Spanish Football Federation prohibited the hiring of foreign football players, and only allowed the hiring of players with Spanish ancestry if they were not international in their countries of origin. However, a large number of South American players were hired who did not comply with federative regulations and whose documentation was false, and some of these players had even played irregular matches for the national team. In 1973 the RFEF admitted the inclusion of foreign soccer players in Spanish competitions. On March 4, 1979, the first soccer players' strike was called, which was a success. The main demands were the abolition of the right of lien and its inclusion in Social Security. In 1981 the RFEF authorized advertising on the shirts.

The XII Soccer World Cup took place in Spain in 1982, which for the first time was played with 24 national team teams.

The importance that the League championship acquired — displacing the Cup as the most important competition in the territory — led to the creation of the National Professional Soccer League, also known by the acronym LFP or the commercial brand La Liga, in 1984. Liga, an association that was made up of the clubs and sports corporations that participated in the different professional categories of the Spanish soccer league. Since then, this body has been in charge of regulating the First and Second Division League "A" in coordination with the Royal Spanish Football Federation.

In the 1995-96 season, the fixed number for the players, the three changes of players during the game, and the allocation of 3 points for victory were authorized.

Starting in the 1990s, Spanish football underwent a second revolution with the conversion of sports clubs into sports limited companies, the income from television broadcasts, millionaire transfers and football globalization as a result of the Bosman ruling. to the so-called "League of the Stars". Circumstances that were all to the detriment of the Spanish players who saw more and more players of different nationalities arrive. This event peaked when, for the first time, a team lined up eleven players of different nationalities in its initial team, in the match between Granada Club de Fútbol —the one involved— and Real Betis Balompié, in the match corresponding to the matchday 23 of the 2016-17 season. The same club also formed an eleven without Spaniards, like Atlético de Madrid in 2008, or Sevilla Fútbol Club in 2016 to name a few. To alleviate these circumstances, Also occurring in other countries such as Italy, UEFA began in the mid-2000s to establish a series of regulations to be met to play continental competitions, such as that a team must register sine qua non to at least four players trained in the club's country of origin, and that at least two have been trained in their respective lower categories, later increasing the figures to eight players in total, and at least four from the quarry itself.

Spanish teams

Absolute

The national selection celebrates its first World Cup in Madrid. 12 July 2010.

The Spanish National Soccer Team is governed in its different categories by the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation.

The Spanish team played its first official match on August 28, 1920, in Brussels, against the Danish team, on the occasion of the Antwerp Olympic Games. In this competition the Spanish, who participated with a team amateur, since professionalism was not yet established in the country, they achieved the silver medal, being the greatest international achievement until in 2010 they were proclaimed the winner of the World Cup.

The team has participated in the following editions of the FIFA or UEFA competitions:

• 14 of the twenty editions of the FIFA World Cup.
• 9 of the twenty-four editions Football Olympic Tournament.
• 9 of the 14 editions of the Euro.
• two of the eight editions of the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The national team has won five championships in national team tournaments organized by FIFA or UEFA:

• the championship Euro 1964 which was held in Spain, and whose end was played at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid, winning the selection of the Soviet Union by 2-1, with goals of Jesus María Pereda and Marcelino Martínez.
• the championship Football Olympic Tournament at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, whose end was played at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, winning the selection of Poland by 3-2, with two goals of Kiko Narváez and a goal of Abelardo Fernández.
• the championship Euro 2008 which was held in Austria and Switzerland, and whose end was played at the Ernst Happel stadium in Vienna, after defeating the selection of Germany by 1-0, with a goal of Fernando Torres.
• the championship 2010 Soccer World Cup which was held in South Africa, and whose end was played at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg, winning the selection of the Netherlands by 1-0, with a goal of Andrés Iniesta in the extension.
• the championship Euro 2012 which was held in Poland and Ukraine, and whose end was played at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, after defeating the selection of Italy by 4-0, with goals of David Silva, Jordi Alba, Fernando Torres, and Juan Mata. After this triumph, the selection of Spain it was the first selection that revalited the title of champion of the Eurocopa and the first one that got the triple crown with three consecutive championships (Europe 2008, Soccer World Cup 2010, and Euro Cup 2012). With this third title it becomes the most laureate of the competition with Germany.

The selection has obtained the following awards and distinctions:

• FIFA Best Team Award: 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013.
• Prince of Asturias Sports Award: 2010.
• Laureus Award for Best International Team: 2011.
• FIFA Award for Clean Game (FIFA Fair Play): Copa Mundial de Football, 2006, Copa Mundial de Football, 2010, and Copa Mundial de Football, 2018.

Amateur

The Spanish amateur team, which has disappeared today, has as its greatest achievement being proclaimed European champion in 1970 in the competition reserved for amateur teams, the UEFA Cup Amateur.

Inferior

The Spanish soccer teams in their lower categories have achieved multiple international titles, among which stand out:

• European Championship Sub-21: 5 titles (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019). Récord.
• Sub-20 World Cup Championship: 1 title (1999).
• European Championship Sub-19: 11 titles (1952, 1954, 1995, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2019). Récord.
• European Championship Sub-17: 9 titles (1986, 1988, 1991, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2017). Récord.
• Meridian Cup: 3 titles (1999, 2001, 2003). Récord.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation has been rewarded for the results of the lower categories of the national football team with the following prizes and distinctions:

• UEFA Maurice Burlaz Award: 1994, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2011. Récord.

Likewise, in the Olympic Football Tournament of the Olympic Games, in which players under the age of 23 participate, the team has achieved:

• the Gold medal at the Olympic Games Barcelona 1992.
• the silver medal at the Olympic Games Sydney 2000 and Tokyo 2020.

He also won the silver medal at the Antwerp 1920 Olympic Games in which the players of the senior team participated.

In the Mediterranean Games football tournament, in which players under 20 years of age participate, the team has achieved:

• 3 Gold medals: 2005, 2009, 2018.
• 1 silver medal: 1995.
• 2 bronze medals: 1963, and 1967.

Female

The women's team made its debut in 1971. Since then it has participated in two final phases of the World Cup (2015), reaching the round of 16 in 2019 and has participated in four editions of the Women's Euro Cup (1997 —in which she was a semifinalist— 2013, 2017, and 2022).

The female teams in lower categories have achieved the following titles:

• Women's World Championship Sub-20: 1 title (2022).
• European Championship Sub-19: 3 titles (2004, 2017, 2018).
• European Championships Sub-17: 4 titles (2010, 2011, 2015, 2018).
• Women's World Championship Sub-17: 2 titles (2018, 2022).

Autonomous

The regional teams are the representative teams of the different territorial federations and their autonomous communities. Professional players born in the respective autonomies participate in these teams. These teams can only play friendly matches, since they are not part of FIFA or UEFA. However, the regional governments and various social sectors of the historical communities (especially Catalonia and the Basque Country) prefer to use the term national team to refer to their regional teams, while claiming its official status to being able to participate in international tournaments.

It so happens that some of the territorial federations of Spain were created before the Spanish Federation, so their representative teams were born before the Spanish team. This was the case of the Catalonia team and the North Team, which represented the extinct Northern Federation (Basque Country and Cantabria).

During the Franco government, these regional combinations practically ceased to exist. They reappeared in the mid-1980s and, above all, in the 1990s. Since then it is common for several of the regional teams to play international friendly matches annually, coinciding with the Christmas dates.

Furthermore, the Spanish phase of the UEFA Regions Cup is played biennially, with the amateur teams from the different autonomous communities, which is currently the most important tournament at the regional level in Spain.

In lower categories we have the Spanish Championship of regional soccer teams that is held annually.

Spanish clubs

The first club, legally established in Spain, was the Madrid Cricket and Foot-Ball (Club) founded in 1879 but disappeared years later. On December 18, 1889, the Real Club Recreativo de Huelva —under the name of Huelva Recreation Club— and is currently the oldest club of all Spanish football clubs, which is why it is called the "Dean of Spanish football". Since the entry into force of Law 10/1990, practically all of the clubs that compete professionally in Spain are, in reality, companies, under the legal form of sports corporations, whose property is in the hands of its shareholders. Only four professional clubs, Athletic Club, Fútbol Club Barcelona, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Club Atlético Osasuna maintain their original structure as sports clubs controlled directly by their members.

In terms of clashes, the matches played between Real Madrid Club de Fútbol and Fútbol Club Barcelona hold the honor of being the match that has been repeated the most times in official matches in the history of Spanish football, which in turn It is once the most relevant football rivalry between clubs, and each game they play is known among the media and fans as "el Clásico", being one of the matches between football clubs with the greatest worldwide following.

National official competitions

At the national level, the Royal Spanish Football Federation is in charge in most cases of organizing the different club competitions, both at the male and female level, in various categories. Others are organized by different regional federations in the case of lower categories or training, while some of the highest level are organized jointly with other private bodies. In the same way, it is established in the female category, while there are various groups such as the Association of Spanish Soccer Players that look after their interests against the aforementioned associations.

This is the case of the League Championships, held annually since they were created in 1929 and which are considered the main competitions in the country. They are divided by their professional or amateur character, until concluding with the regional and territorial divisions established in each zone of the country. It is one of the current tournaments, along with the Spanish Cup Championships —also with a male and female category—, and the Super Cup. Historically, there have been other competitions of various kinds that complete a calendar that covers in Spain from the month of August to the month of June, both inclusive, with a brief break during the Christmas period.

Up to a total of fifteen teams have managed to proclaim themselves winners of one of Spain's highest-level official competitions for men: Fútbol Club Barcelona —which is the most successful with seventy-six national titles, and also leads the list of winners of the Championship of Cup with thirty-one titles and the Spanish Super Cup with fourteen titles—, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol —dominator of the list of winners in the main League Championship competition with thirty-five titles for sixty-eight national trophies—, Athletic Club —which completes the list of historic clubs by history and record along with the two already mentioned with thirty-five titles—, Club Atlético de Madrid —fourth and last club to own more than twenty trophies—, Valencia Club de Fútbol, Sevilla Fútbol Club, Real Zaragoza, Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Sociedad de Fútbol, Real Club Deportivo Español, Real Unión Club, Real Betis Balompié, Real Clu b Deportivo Mallorca, the Arenas Club and the Real Valladolid Football Club. These entities monopolize the more than 250 trophies played in the history of Spanish football in the highest category.

These competitions are: the National League Championship, the Spanish Cup Championship, the Super Cup, and the extinct League Cup, the Eva Duarte Cup and the President's Cup of the Spanish Football Federation.

Another hundred and eighty clubs complete the record of the rest of national competitions in lower divisions.

International official competitions

Spanish clubs have recorded some of the best results in international club competitions. In them, the most successful is the Real Madrid Football Club with 32 titles, being the best record worldwide, followed by the 22 achieved by the Barcelona Football Club. The same record is established in UEFA competitions, with the Madrid team once again being the most successful with 21 titles, followed by the 14 titles for F. C. Barcelona.

The people of Madrid are once again the ones who have accumulated the most world-class titles with eight. As for the most prestigious European title, the Champions League, Real Madrid C. F. also dominates the record with fourteen championships, while in the second competition, the Europa League, Sevilla Fútbol Club is the club that has won it the most times with six titles. Both hold the record for consecutive championships for each of them with five and three respectively. The achievement of the title of one of these two competitions gives access to play the European Super Cup, where the Associazione Calcio Milan of Italy is the most successful with five titles, the same as Real Madrid and F. C. Barcelona, who also leads the list of winners of the extinct European Cup Winners' Cup (4) and Fair Cities Cup (3), which despite emerging as a competition for regional teams ended up being adopted among club competitions. The latter is not included in the scope of UEFA competitions, but it is in the calculation of official international competitions as the competition committee is made up of FIFA members.

In total, Spanish teams have won 83 international titles.

Titles in current international competitions:

• 8 FIFA World Cups (five Real Madrid and three FC Barcelona). Récord.
• 19 European Cups / Champions Leagues (catorce del Real Madrid y cinco del FC Barcelona). Récord.
• 13 UEFA Cups / EUFA European Leagues (seis del Sevilla FC, tres del Atlético de Madrid, dos del Real Madrid, una del Valencia CF y Villarreal C. F.). Récord.
• 16 European Supercoups of UEFA (five FC Barcelona, five from Real Madrid, three from the Atlético de Madrid, two from Valencia CF, and one from Seville FC). Récord.

Titles in extinct international competitions:

• 4 Intercontinental Cups (three of Real Madrid and one of the Atlético de Madrid).
• 7 Recouples (four FC Barcelona, one from Valencia CF, one from Real Zaragoza and one from the Atlético de Madrid).
• 6 Fair Cups (three from FC Barcelona, two from Valencia CF and one from Real Zaragoza). Récord.
• 5 Intertototo Cups (two from Villarreal CF, one from Valencia CF, one from the Celta de Vigo and one from Malaga CF).
• 4 Latin Cups (two from Real Madrid and two from FC Barcelona). Récord.
• 1 Ibero-American Cup (Real Madrid). Récord.

In the women's category, FC Barcelona managed to win the maximum continental title, the 2020/2021 UEFA Women's Champions League.

Sports facilities

FC Barcelona Stadium: Camp Nou; the largest stadium in Europe.

The oldest football stadium in Spain is Molinón, owned by Real Sporting de Gijón, which began construction in 1908, and where the first match was played in 1913. The most modern stadium is the new Wanda stadium Metropolitano, owned by Atlético de Madrid, which was inaugurated in 2017 and replaced the old Calderón stadium. As a result of the aging of the facilities and the need to find new operating formulas, 8 of the 20 First Division clubs have announced that they will remodel their stadiums or build a new one in the coming years.

The stadium with the largest capacity in Spain and Europe is the Camp Nou, owned by FC Barcelona, with a capacity of 99,354 spectators, and has hosted various events such as the opening match of the 1982 World Cup, and also the final of the soccer tournament at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992. The stadium with the smallest capacity is Ipurúa, owned by the Eibar Sports Society with a capacity of 6,267 spectators. However, the Manuel Martínez Valero stadium, owned by the Elche Club de Fútbol, is the one with the largest playing field, measuring 108 x 70 meters. In contrast, the Campo de Fútbol de Vallecas, owned by Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, is the stadium with the smallest pitch (100 x 65 meters).

There are currently 12 category 4 football stadiums in Spain, the maximum awarded by UEFA, which are: the Camp Nou stadium, the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, the Benito Villamarín stadium, the Cartuja Olympic stadium, the Olympic stadium Lluís Companys stadium, the San Mamés stadium, the Mestalla stadium, the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán stadium, the Cornellà-El Prat stadium, the Anoeta stadium, the La Rosaleda stadium and the Metropolitano stadium.

Economy

In economic terms, during 2013, professional football generated more than 7,600 million euros, accounting for direct, indirect and induced effects, which represented 0.75% of Spanish GDP. The direct impact of professional football reached more than 3.6 billion euros, of which more than 75% were the result of fan spending on products and services associated with professional football. The indirect contribution of professional football to Spanish GDP reached 2,995 million euros, with the most benefited sectors being cultural, recreational and sports activities, telecommunications, construction and real estate, and restaurants, among others. In addition, 943 million euros were generated as a consequence of the induced effects associated with the private spending of people indirectly employed by professional football in Spain. However, Spanish football clubs present more and more differences in economic terms and results, and have a precarious situation of financial solvency. The Spanish First Division clubs in the 2011-2012 season faced a debt of 3,300 million euros. For this reason, the delegated commission of the Professional Soccer League prepared, in collaboration with CSD, and approved in 2013 a new regulation of economic and financial control to guarantee the economic and financial sustainability of professional soccer.

According to data from the Football League and the Higher Sports Council, in the last quarter of 2016 the debt of football clubs amounted to 230 million euros to the Tax Agency and 18 million to Social Security. Of the almost forty teams in both divisions, six (Atlético de Madrid, Español, Valladolid, Zaragoza, Elche and Mallorca) accounted for 70% of the debt. In January 2013 the debt of the clubs with the Tax Agency amounted to 650 million and since then it has been gradually reduced. In the first quarter of 2017, Congress approved requesting the Court of Accounts to audit the debt that first and second division football clubs maintain with the Treasury and Social Security.

COVID-19 had a huge impact on the economy of Spanish soccer clubs. According to data presented by LaLiga, revenue was reduced by 2,013 million euros between the First and Second Division teams in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, 1,030 million net with a reduction in expenses of 984 million. In order to To obtain financial resources to alleviate the serious economic situation of the clubs, in an extraordinary general assembly of LaLiga the agreement with the venture capital fund CVC Capital Partners was approved, which offered 2,100 million euros in exchange for the acquisition of around 11 % of the audiovisual business of the competition during a period of 50 years. However, the agreement was not unanimous since 38 clubs validated it, but Athletic Club, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Real Oviedo did not join the agreement. The rules for the investment of these financial funds will be applied with the following distribution: 15% to refinance the debt contracted due to Covid-19 (364.5 million euros), another 15% to improve the salary limit (364.5 million), with the option to divide it into three seasons, and 70 % (1,701 million euros) to finance infrastructure or new business development.

Arbitration

Women's soccer

Unlike men's football, women's football has been an amateur sport in Spain, since the RFEF statutes do not contemplate the existence of professional licenses for women. However, In the 2021-22 season, the creation of the Liga Ellas, a competition with the participation of 16 teams that is inspired by the model of the men's league, begins the process of professionalizing women's football. There are three national competitions, the The Women's First Division, the Queen's Cup, and the Women's Spanish Super Cup, in which clubs with a semi-professional structure participate.

The first reference to women's soccer in Spain was a match played in Barcelona on May 31, 1914. The first teams and the first unofficial competitions for women's soccer in Spain arose in the 1970s. On 8 On May 5, 1971, the I Regional Championship of Catalonia for Women's Soccer began, a double-round league competition that ended on March 5, 1972. However, women's soccer was not officially recognized by the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation until 1980, with the creation of the National Women's Soccer Committee. After federative recognition, the first official national competition was the Spanish Championship (Copa de la Reina), created in 1983. The National Women's League began in the 1988-89 season, and is currently known as the Primera Iberdrola.

At the beginning of the 2000s, women's soccer in Spain experienced one of the moments of greatest development and popularity, thanks to the creation of the Super League, the progressive involvement of professional men's teams, and the arrival of media players. Proof of this fact, the 2002-03 season Athletic Club managed to proclaim league champion at the San Mamés stadium in front of 35,000 spectators. In April 2017, the derby between Valencia and Levante Unión Deportiva was played at the Mestalla Stadium against 17,000 spectators. In January 2019 the match of the Queen's Cup between the women's teams of Athletic Club and Atlético de Madrid brought together 48,121 attendees. In the League match played at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium between Atlético de Madrid and FC Barcelona in March 2019, there were 60,739 spectators, which was an all-time record for the highest attendance at a women's club football match in Europe.

Women's soccer licenses by autonomous community

Position	Name	2013 Licenses	2014 Licenses	Licenses 2015	2016 Licenses	2017 Licenses	2018 Licenses	2019 Licenses	Licenses 2020	Potential population 1 July 2020 (hab.)	Ratio
1	Catalonia	10 212	10 978	9 788	10 568	11 515	12 925	12 968	14 093	1 509 570	1:107,11
2	Basque Country	2 927	2 946	2 946	2 932	11 413	11 050	11 916	12 739	380 960	1:29,91
3	Andalusia	6 148	8 712	5 710	6 468	6 829	6 800	7 535	8 966	1 706 457	1:199,33
4	Community of Madrid	3 714	3 981	3 935	5 003	5 284	5 740	7 568	8 213	1 376 218	1:167,57
5	Galicia	1 668	1 931	2 027	237	3 126	6 838	6 391	6 606	442 562	1:66,99
6	Valencian Community	5 481	5 220	3 787	3 963	5 017	5 254	5 620	5 401	955 369	1:176,89
7	Region of Murcia	903	1 024	941	996	3 024	2 490	3 342	3 412	314 654	1:92,22
8	Canary Islands	1 534	1 774	1 699	1 782	2 282	2 207	2 687	2 885	451 570	1:156,52
9	Castilla-La Mancha	1 140	1 216	2 052	2 061	2 381	295	2 533	2 748	393 421	1:143,17
10	Aragon	1 500	1 635	1 646	1 705	1 974	1 393	1 490	2 080	241 547	1:116,13
11	Castilla y León	1 080	1 231	1 405	1 545	1 814	1 822	2 072	2 048	385 722	1:188,34
12	Navarra	1 153	1 159	1 168	1 190	1 244	1 325	1 501	1 765	125 867	1:71,31
13	Extremadura	1 698**	801	1 106	1 186	1 300	1 396	1 557	1 738	196 366	1:112,98
14	Principality of Asturias	347*	342*	388*	452*	634*	1 214	1 413	1 529	155 875	1:101.95
15	Balearic Islands	843	895	767	796	1 024	888	1 123	1 290	253 408	1:196,44
16	Cantabria	398	493	543	579	837	746	814	883	100 064	1:113,32
17	La Rioja	267	274	290	301	396	395	445	480	57 980	1:120,79
18	Melilla	211**	98	78	96	81	159	231	343	20 641	1:60,18
19	Ceuta	149	163	258	263	154	154	70	242	19 718	1:81,48
	TOTAL	40.606	44.873	40.524	44.123	60.329	65.091	71.276	77.461	9.087.969	1:117,32

* Only counts senior female licenses
** Sum of the licenses for the years 2012 and 2013
Potential population as the number of women between the ages of 5 and 40

Football

indoor soccer is one of the most practiced sports disciplines in Spain. According to a CIS study commissioned by the Higher Sports Council (CSD), 9.6% of people (1,907,520) between the ages of 7 and 64 who play sports in Spain play Futsal. After soccer, it is one of the favorite and most practiced sports by Spanish schoolchildren.

Futsal was introduced to Spain in the 1970s. In 1977, the semi-official Futsal Championship of Castilla Clubs was played for the first time. The Superior Council of Sports (CSD), decided that it depended on the National Amateur Football Committee, of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). At the beginning of the 80s, the first national competitions began despite the difficulties and controversies. In 1982 the Spanish Futsal Federation (FEFS) was created, which separated from the RFEF. Subsequently, in 1989 the top-flight futsal teams of the FEFS and the RFEF created the National Futsal League (LNFS), recognized by the RFEF in the year 1990. The organization of the futsal league competition in Spain is made up of a pyramidal system of interconnected leagues (divisions). The First Division and the Second Division are organized by the National Futsal League, these being 2 professional categories. The third level, Second Division B, is managed by the National Futsal Committee (CNFS) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The Third Division is a national category but managed by the territorial federations as well as the regional divisions.

Currently, the LNFS is one of the most important leagues in the world in terms of its operating model in terms of competition, sporting success, training, marketing and communication. However, it also This model has been questioned because as a consequence of the economic crisis, which has had an impact on a decrease in the income of sponsoring companies, and poor management, the business viability of some clubs with a long history that have disappeared have been complicated. On the other hand, in terms of sporting successes, the teams of the LNFS futsal clubs have obtained various international titles such as the UEFA Futsal Champions League (Inter Futsal 5 titles, FC Barcelona 4 titles and Playas de Castellón Futsal 2 titles), the Futsal Cup Winners' Cup (Inter Futsal 1 title, ElPozo Murcia 1 title, Prone Lugo Sports Association 1 title, Santiago Futsal 1 title) and the Intercontinental Cup of f Futsal (Inter Futsal 5 titles, Caja Segovia Futsal 1 title).

In addition to the league competition there are other official competitions of futsal clubs. The Spanish Futsal Cup has been organized by the LNFS since 1990, and is played by the first eight teams that have finished the first round of the league. The King's Cup for Futsal is a competition organized since 2010 between the LNFS and the RFEF, represented through the CNFS, which is played by all First and Second Division clubs, excluding subsidiaries, and teams from the Second Division B are also invited. The Futsal Super Cup is a tournament organized by the LNFS since 1990 that currently pits the champion of the First Division of the League against the King's Cup champion.

The Spanish Futsal Team has participated in the nine editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup, and has been champion twice (2000 and 2004) and runner-up three times (1996, 2008 and 2012). It has also participated in the twelve editions of the Futsal Euro Cup, being champion seven times (1996, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2016), and runner-up twice (1999, 2018). Spain was the organizer of the 1996 FIFA Futsal World Cup, the 1996 Futsal Euro Cup and the 1999 Futsal Euro Cup.

Beach Soccer

In Spain, beach soccer began in 1996 as an entertainment show in exhibition matches in which retired soccer players participated, such as Lobo Carrasco, who together with young people like Ramiro Amarelle were the pioneers who helped expand this modality. These former soccer players made up the first Spanish men's beach soccer team, and later young players emerged with new technical and tactical concepts that promoted the development of beach soccer in Spain. Since then, the Spanish men's team has achieved several successes, and to its record it has four beach soccer European Cups (1999, 2008, 2009, 2014), five Euro Beach Soccer League (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2006) a Mundialito (2013), and three runners-up in the Beach Soccer World Cup (2003, 2004, and 2013). The women's team has also won a European Beach Soccer Cup.

The beach soccer competitions organized by the RFEF in both the men's and women's categories are the Spanish Championship of Absolute Autonomous Teams, the National Beach Soccer League, and the RFEF Cup.

Media

The configuration of Spanish football as a social phenomenon and sporting spectacle has been based on extensive information coverage in the media (newspapers, radio, television, internet and social networks). In addition, a characteristic and differential aspect with respect to other countries, it is the predominance of football news in the Spanish media to the detriment of other sports news, as a consequence of cultural and economic factors.

On November 1, 1870, the Jerez newspaper El progreso published a story in its local section that is the first written reference to soccer in Spain. However, the first journalistic chronicle of a match played in Spain corresponds to a match that was played for charity in Bilbao on June 29, 1889 by two English teams: the Barmston Rangers and a team made up of sailors from the ships Abydos, Nina, Dawdon and Harven. The chronicle was published in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, and listed the two line-ups, referring to the start time of the match, the result, the collection and the audience.

Initially, football information, like other sports information, began to be published in the Spanish written press under the influence of Anglo-Saxon and French journalism. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, several biweekly or weekly specialized sports publications arose with news on various sports, including those that made reference to soccer, and the only one that is still published is Mundo Deportivo, which began in 1906 as a weekly publication and in 1929 it became daily. Deportivo, Gol, Marca, Dicen, As, Sport), in the Monday Sheet, and in specialized graphic magazines (Don Balón, Tanteador, Azul y Blanco, Guía Helmántica, La Gaceta del Quinielista).

Several sports newspapers are currently published, which have print and digital editions, such as Mundo Deportivo, Marca, As, Sport, Superdeporte, L'Esportiu, Estadio Deportivo, El Decano Deportivo, DxT Campeón, and the Soccer is the main and most prominent topic. In addition to sports newspapers, and supplements to general information newspapers, there are also a multitude of digital media that provide a large amount of information about soccer such as DonBalon, 90min soccer news, Futbolistadigital, Laligaennumeros, Panenka, La Futbolteca, Soccer on TV, Goal Spain, Central Defense, Diario Bernabeu Digital, Salmon Palangana, Sports and Finance, Open 24 hours, Futbolitis, Wanderers Soccer, El Enganche, Echoes of the ball, FC Barcelona news, Weloba, The other 18, Van Gaal's notebook, Merca Fútbol, Rayo Herald, Mi Rondo, Marcador Internacional, I like football, El Apunte, Uría Blog, Underground Football, Libero Magazine and others.

According to the General Media Survey (EGM) (October 2017 to May 2018) of the Association for Communication Media Research (AIMC), the newspaper Marca had the most daily readers (1,773,000) of all the general information and specialized sports newspapers. Other specialized sports newspapers also had a high number of daily readers such as As (872,000), El Mundo Deportivo (407,000) and Sport (393,000).

On May 15, 1927, the first radio broadcast of a soccer match was made in Spain, and it was the Cup final played between Real Unión de Irún and Club Arenas de Getxo. The match was broadcast by Unión Radio. Fans of soccer also grew thanks to the radio. The best-known fragment in the history of sports radio in Spain was Zarra's goal in the match between the Spanish team and the England played in the 1950 Soccer World Cup that Matias Prats broadcast.

The genre of sports radio programs in Spain, whose main content deals with soccer, is schematically divided between daily midnight sports programs and weekend sports programs. This division in Spanish radio occurs in the decade of the 50s, when the first sports program of the weekend was also born. On October 12, 1952, Carousel Deportivo began to be broadcast, which was a pioneering program and currently the dean of weekend sports radio. Among the daily midnight sports programs, it is worth highlighting Supergarcía, which was broadcast from 1982 to 2002, and El larguero, which began its broadcasts in 1989 and is still on the air. As emblematic figures of sports broadcasting, Matias Prats, Vicente Marco, José Ramón de la Morena, José María García, among others, stand out. Currently, along with the sports radio programs already mentioned, there is a very varied offer of programs such as Tiempo de juego, Radioestadio, Tablero deportivo, Al primer toque, El transistor, El Marcador, El partidazo de COPE among others. In addition, Radio Marca is a radio specialized in sports, which offers abundant information about soccer.

The greatest impact of soccer in Spain is on television, where it achieves huge audiences: 15 percent of the population regularly follows football every Matchday, a figure that rises to 20 percent when it comes to matches of the Eurocopa. The first televised match in Spain was on October 24, 1954 in a test stage carried out by Televisión Española (TVE), and it was a match played between Real Madrid and Racing de Santander. However, the first football match televised by TVE for the entire audience was on February 15, 1959, and it was a match played by Real Madrid and Fútbol Club Barcelona.

From the beginning, there were already discussions about the effects of television on the organizational development of soccer, and especially on the attendance of spectators at stadiums. Finally, in 1962, an agreement was established between TVE, the football clubs and the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), so that TVE could broadcast a live match of the League Championship. The number of matches per season was previously agreed and the matches were broadcast when the rest of the day had ended so as not to harm the attendance of other playing fields. In this way, the League Championship and TVE were the first European organizations to agree on the regular broadcast of league matches on a weekly basis. This agreement was reviewed annually and established the maximum number of matches that television could broadcast and required that televised matches must be scheduled at the end of the day.

In 1983, with the appearance of the regional television stations, the first disputes over the rights to broadcast soccer appeared, and in 1987 they obtained a contract that allowed them to share the rights with TVE. In 1988, the Television Law was approved Private, and in 1989 the monopoly of public television ended and the period of television competition for football broadcasts began. In 1990, the regional television channels, through FORTA and the Canal Plus pay chain, reached an agreement for a period of 8 years to share the television rights to the League. The regional television channels broadcast a match on Saturdays, and the I pay for a game on Sundays with the encrypted signal. However, the fight for soccer rights worsened with the appearance of digital satellite television, and the struggle between the two main operators, Canal Satélite Digital and Vía Digital. In 1997, the Law regulating the broadcasts and retransmissions of competitions and sporting events, also known as the "Football Law", was approved, by which football was considered an event of "general interest" and imposed the broadcast of free-to-air television and one free League match per day. In 1997 the Audiovisual Sport company was created, a grouping of both operators together with Televisió de Catalunya (TV3), which acquired the rights to the first and second division League, and the Cup from the 1998/99 season to the 2002/03 season. In 2006 Mediapro joined the purchase of the football television rights, and this conditioned its integration into Audiovisual Sport. However, in 2007 Audiovisual Sport sued Mediapro for breach of the contract rules it signed with Sogecable. In 2009 Mediapro and Sogecable agreed to share the rights to the League for 3 years, but the conflicts persisted. In 2010, the General Law of Audiovisual Communication was approved, which for the first time regulated the period of time and the form of management of soccer rights. The intense dispute over the broadcasting rights of the Professional Soccer League reflects the struggle between groups media with high economic interests, along with political interventions. This ongoing conflict over television rights demonstrates the enormous importance of football as a strategic element in the programming of Spanish television channels as a result of its appeal to audiences and its relevance as entertainment content with a high social impact. The total cost for the operators to broadcast all paid football in the 2018/19 season amounts to 1,310 million euros. Movistar currently has the rights to the League and the Cup until 2019, and La Liga will put out to tender the 2019-2020 triennium between the different operators.

In addition to broadcasting soccer matches, soccer summary programs have also been broadcast on television. In 1972, the pioneering Estudio Estadio program began, presenting a summary of the Liga soccer matches, which was broadcast on TVE until 2005, and was resumed again in 2009. In 1990, El día después began to be broadcast on Canal+ (Spain) who also reviewed the football day but with a casual tone, and focusing on curious situations.

Currently the offer of television programs, both open and pay television, on soccer is very numerous with summaries of the soccer day, analysis of the matches, news about the clubs, signings, controversies and controversies, such as Estudio Estadio, Fiebre Maldini, Directo GOL among others. In addition, there are also soccer-specific sports channels such as Movistar Fútbol or Bein LaLiga and official club television channels, such as Barça TV and Real Madrid TV.

In addition, in recent years the information coverage of football among fans has also spread to the Internet through personal computers, mobile phones, and social networks, and have reduced the role of conventional media. Soccer clubs have an increasing presence on Google+, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, with a large number of followers. Approximately 6 out of 10 Spaniards say they use social networks to find out about sports and among those interested in soccer 56% of users use the Internet through personal computers, 39% through social networks, and 34% through mobile phones. In all the social networks in the digital environment, FC Barcelona is the club with the largest number of followers.