Latin America keeps the flame of women's football alight despite the pandemic

The Boca Juniors footballers after winning the League last January.Juan Roncoroni / AP

They play in the big stadiums, they do it on training grounds.

They charge thousands of dollars, they must have a second job to survive.

Women's soccer in Latin America has taken off slowly in some countries.

Inequality has hampered the growth of sport in the region and the covid-19 pandemic has dealt a serious blow, but the female footballers keep the flame burning.

“The clubs have to do their part for women's football.

The person who plays soccer in Peru is because they really like it a lot, because it is not to earn money ”, Miryam Tristán, the great scorer of the Peruvian team, tells EL PAÍS.

In the region, female footballers face the challenge of salaries.

“In Argentina, a player in the First Division charges the same as a player in the fourth category ($ 350).

And not all of them charge, ”says Argentine journalist Ayelén Pujol.

Mexico, Chile and Brazil have been placed at the forefront of women's football in the region, although they still have serious problems such as machismo within clubs and salary disparity.

FIFA offered support of $ 500,000 to each country to promote this sport in the face of the closure of stadiums and the economic crisis.

Colombia, the fight against precariousness

Colombian soccer players have plenty of results to receive support.

In the last decade, the Colombian team achieved two Copa América runners-up in 2010 and 2014, the World Cup qualifications in 2011 and 2015 and the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016. At the 2019 Pan-American Games they won the gold medal.

In the final of the first women's professional league, in 2017, Independiente Santa Fe was crowned against Atlético Huila at the El Campín stadium in Bogotá, in front of more than 30,000 spectators.

Huila won the tournament in 2018 and also the women's Copa Libertadores.

But under the grass the soccer players faced unworthy working conditions and a hostile environment.

Isabella Echeverri and Melissa Ortiz broke the silence with a video in which they denounced irregularities in the management of the women's team at the beginning of 2019: the federation did not pay them, they had to cover their own tickets and medical expenses, their uniforms were old or used and the players who dared to speak were banned.

His complaints resonated with force although they also caused a pulse with the managers that continues to this day.

Several of the Colombians play abroad: Echeverri and Natalia Gaitán are teammates at Sevilla, Leicy Santos plays at Atlético de Madrid.

The Women's League has been marked by the struggle of soccer players against job insecurity.

Since 2018, both the duration of the tournament and the number of teams have been reduced.

América de Cali won the third edition that 20 teams played in less than three months in 2019, and Santa Fe repeated the crown last year, when the pandemic had already erupted, in a 58-day, 13-team tournament.

The 2021 edition is scheduled for just 45 days and the number of participants is unknown.

Marta's land has not yet demolished its walls

Brazil has been one of the most radical countries against women's football.

The country prohibited women from practicing the sport between 1941 and 1979. One of the first teams was called Radar FC, which formed the basis for the Brazilian women's team in the 1980s and which participated in the first World Cup in 1991. Then came the fabulous generation of Marta and Cristiane.

The

canarinha

was American champion in 2003 and 2007, twice they won the silver medal at the Olympic Games and the world runner-up in 2007.

Until 2013, the Brazilian Soccer Federation officially created the Women's League to replace semi-professional tournaments.

The first champions were the players of the Olympic Center in a tournament where 20 teams played and with only one male club involved, Vasco de Gama.

The Brazilian championship has grown in popularity.

Since 2019, the Brazilian federation requires men's clubs to have a women's team and one of basic forces.

The tournament features eight big teams from Brazil led by Corinthians, a team that witnessed the packed stadium with 28,862 fans.

Although the women's teams do not play as usual in the same stadiums as the men.

Argentina: taking soccer out of Buenos Aires

In Argentina, soccer has been played since October 5, 1913, it was until 1991 when the Women's League was officially established and until 2019 when the championship was professionalized a little more.

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) obliges clubs to have at least eight salaried players, that is, there are footballers who do not charge.

“There are many players who have other jobs besides soccer.

The footballers decide to go abroad to dedicate themselves to football even if they are not paid too much in Europe, but there they can develop better ”, says Ayelén Pujol, author of the book

What a player !: a century of women's football in Argentina.

The main clubs are Boca Juniors, River Plate and UAI Urquiza, and clubs from Buenos Aires play throughout the League.

"One of the main claims is that the tournament is more federal because football is growing a lot," adds Pujol.

Not all clubs give away stadiums to women's football and some of the main channels broadcast the matches.

"The players have more followers, so public opinion is demanding to see more games," says Pujol.

The classification of the Albiceleste team to the 2019 World Cup raised interest and the names of Aldana Cometti, Mariana Larroquette and Soledad Jaimes began to resonate.

The pandemic frustrated the tournament a year ago and in 2021, as in the rest of the continent, the public in the stands has denied it.

Mexico turns to women's football

Mexico took too long to support the category.

The country organized and participated in a World Cup in 1971 even without the endorsement of FIFA and, despite the great euphoria it aroused, the category was marginalized.

The amateur circuits kept alive the desire of generations of women to want to dedicate themselves to football.

As in South America, the best soccer players had to leave the country to look for an opportunity, such as the cases of Charlyn Corral and Stephany Mayor, today great figures.

In 2017 the first professional women's championship with 17 clubs was founded.

Since that year, the North American country has taken it more seriously.

Wage parity, unequal treatment, a collective contract and decent health insurance remain the main outstanding.

The authorities of the League have indicated that the competition has not yet managed to establish itself as a big business.

There are 33.5 million fans of the Mexican Women's League, according to official data.

The engagement with the fans has been key.

In almost four years the category has given a significant boost to reach television broadcasts and a large part of the stadiums used by men.

Rayadas and Tigres, who play in the northern city of Monterrey, have been two of the teams with the highest investment and the best results.

A match between the two clubs reached a world milestone: more than 51,000 fans in the stands, only surpassed by the more than 60,000 spectators at an Atlético de Madrid -Barça in 2019.

If anyone symbolizes the progress of women's football, it is Mónica Vergara.

She was part of the first women's Tri to play a World Cup in 1999 and had to find a way to play in a country without a League.

She became a coach and achieved one of the greatest achievements for Mexico: reaching a World final with the U-17 team.

In 2021 he managed to reach the position of the senior team, controlled for more than 20 years by men and with little success.

The Peruvian League, between the shadows and the risk fields

The women's league in Peru began in 1999. The men's clubs created their women's categories, but over the years the conditions have waned.

"The championships were not good because the clubs did not receive punishment for not presenting women's teams," explains Miryam Tristán, a national team leader.

Tristán recalls that when he started playing at Sporting Cristal at that time at the age of 13 they had everything: training ground, clean uniforms, changing rooms, but those conditions deteriorated.

In 2019, the classic between Alianza and Universitario was broadcast for the first time, however, the matches are not always broadcast on television.

Games are usually held in stadiums other than men's, where there are even no dressing rooms.

"Sometimes there are parts of dirt and grass, or the irrigation pipes are on the surface and it is dangerous," he says.

"Having a specific field for women's football would be a privilege," he adds.

The footballers do not receive a remuneration, but a payment to reimburse transport costs.

The Peruvian League is considered amateur, but it competes in the Copa Libertadores, one of the great projects for women's football in the southern cone of America.

The covid-19 pandemic has restricted, worldwide, that women's teams can hold rallies or friendly matches.

Throughout 2020, the Peruvian team will have some training days between November and December.

Chile, the triumph of the union

The Chilean women do not want to stop succeeding.

In 2016, the category lived its lowest hours when it was relegated from the agenda of its federation.

The support they had had since the founding of the League in 2008 seemed to have faded and the men's clubs were beginning to falter.

The Chileans united en bloc to found the National Association of Female Soccer Players, a kind of union to fight for their rights as footballers and to give a message: a woman can live from soccer with dignity.

La Roja gained momentum.

They qualified for the 2019 World Cup after finishing second in the Copa América.

In terms of the League, Colo Colo has been the club that has had no qualms about supporting women's football and that has meant winning the League 13 times and also won the Copa Libertadores in 2012. The pandemic canceled last year's League, but the leaders managed to organize another tournament successfully.

“Many leaders do not understand that football is a space for both women and men and that we deserve the same conditions.

They also do not understand that it is a good business.

His machismo is so ingrained that even something he likes so much, such as money and business, cannot be seen, "said Iona Rothfeld, a historic Chilean soccer player, to the

Contragolpe

portal

.

Chilean soccer players were once again pioneers by presenting, a few days ago, a protocol against sexual harassment and abuse within sport to eradicate any form of discrimination.

The frenzy for women's soccer in Latin America does not want to stop.

Subscribe here

to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the informative keys of the current situation in the region.