The F League began its fourth season as a professional competition in August, a status that allows teams to exploit audiovisual and commercial rights and manage the revenue generated by the tournament. This campaign is the first in which the league will not receive public subsidies after the government allocated almost 40 million euros for clubs to improve their infrastructure and promote the launch of the League. EL PAÍS collected data on stadium attendance from specialized websites flash score AND Soccerdonna and from the sports statistics institute Opta, figures that employers do not want to make public on the pretext that they “may be misunderstood”, according to a spokesperson. From the analysis of this newspaper it emerges that the turnout of fans at the courses is low, with just 1,227 people on average per match this year in the first ten days, lower than the 1,660 recorded in 2024-2025. There is also an extreme dependence on the fans that Barcelona attract and those that Athletic gather in San Mamés when they open the stadium to play. the lionesses. Last season the two teams attracted 177,400 fans, or 45% of the 398,300 present at the league match in which Barça won their sixth consecutive title.
David Aganzo, president of the AFE union – the majority – is very critical of employers: “The question we all ask ourselves is what the F League has done in recent years to try to improve women’s football and attendance in stadiums, which are decreasing. The subsidies have not been used adequately. We need more visibility, promotion and greater protection in the collective agreement. If we want to help women’s football we must make the tournament visible in the groups and watch the issue on television. It cannot be otherwise.” broadcast openly. Our colleagues are world champions, and in the institutional and management part we are not growing like in the sports sector.” Pablo Vilches, CEO of the F League, recognizes that presence is the “main challenge” to be faced. “We work with the clubs to make it grow, not at the pace we are going, but at a greater pace”, he explains. The coach adds that a consultancy firm has been hired which is checking all the teams: “The ideas will start from there. There are conditions that we have studied. For example, the facilities where matches are played, being sports cities, are many on the outskirts. We are working on this program to see how we can incentivize people to travel.”
At the end of the last campaign, the employers’ association distributed a graph boasting about the growth in spectators and stadium attendance. The F League and DAZN – the main platform on which the tournament is broadcast – have only published the number of viewers accumulated over the course of the season: 6.7 million, 90% more than in 2024-2025. However, they did not break down the data by encounters. Only in the final of the last European Championship, in which Spain lost on penalties to England, TVE’s La1 recorded a peak of 6.5 million, with an average of 4.13 million. “We have the strongest team in the world and the best players. They have shown that without the help of the institutions they are the best, and the people we train are not at their level”, criticizes Aganzo.
Fan attendance at stadiums has grown since the tournament turned professional under the presidency of Irene Lozano of the Superior Sports Council (CSD), in a decision that granted the status of a women’s championship in Spain for the first time. Until then only the men’s First and Second Divisions and the ACB were. In his first professional season (2022-2023), the F League amassed 336,000 fans; the second, 371,000 (+10%); and the third, approximately 398,000 (+7%). However, the data shows that only Barcelona, the team that has dominated national and European football for the last five years, manages to fill more than half of its stadium. The Blaugrana averaged 4,600 spectators last year at the Johan Cruyff and brought 35,812 fans to the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium (64% occupancy) in the classic against Real Madrid. The rest of the clubs moved in average percentages ranging from 6% of Deportivo – they play all their matches at the Riazor, with a capacity of 34,600 – to 45% of the relegated Betis at Ciudad Deportiva Luis del Sol – capacity of 1,300. In La Liga, however, last year spectators were equal to 81%, this year according to Opta they have risen to 84%.
The numbers of the F League are worrying due to the dependence on Barcelona, an engine that drives a machine on which the second club by budget, Real Madrid, has not yet opened the Santiago Bernabéu for the debut of its team. The entity directed by Florentino Pérez welcomed only 26,100 people in the season before Alfredo di Stéfano, with an average of 1,700 per game. German Melanie Leupolz, who was part of the white team in the 2024-2025 season, explained to Kicker FE: Men’s podcast that the president told the locker room that he will not open the stadium located in La Castellana – approximately 83,000 seats – until he wins the first title. “Dependence on Barça? The team that has so many world champions and winners of the Ballon d’Or attracts fans more than any other”, defends Vilches.
The employers’ association’s ability to attract fans is also a far cry from what happens in the English Women’s Super League, boosted by money from television rights and the boost provided by the national celebration of Euro 2022, where its team lifted the trophy. Last year the tournament brought together more than 875,000 people in its stadiums, with an average occupancy of 43%, well above the 27% recorded by the F League.
The Spanish competition improves its numbers with the timely opening of large stadiums. The next day, Barça will host Real Madrid at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium and Real Sociedad will do the same with Athletic at Anoeta. The two matches will help correct some attendance data that is not entirely correct. When questioned by this newspaper, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) refused to assess the growth of the tournament or its ability to attract fans.
The championship, however, has taken a step forward in recent months. The employers’ association signed a deal with Moeve in May in exchange for 18 million euros for the next three seasons for the League’s name and hopes to incorporate the revenue from his permanent inclusion in the pool during this season. The measure will allow part of the money generated by this game of chance – in 2023 it raised 160.62 million euros, according to the State Lotteries and Betting Company (SELAE) – to reach the 16 women’s teams and not just the 42 teams that make up the men’s First and Second Divisions, as is the case now. The objective is also to help make the women’s tournament visible in a country that last season recorded a record of 109,874 girls registered to kick the ball, when ten years ago there were 40,524.
