The promise that Laporta has not yet fulfilled
Starting in July, Barça will have women's football as the only team in the club's professional sections.
Barcelona"We will promote women's sports," read the brochure for Joan Laporta's candidacy. When he won the 2021 elections, there were two women's teams in Barça's professional sections: the football team and the basketball team—despite the club considering them amateur in the case of women—with their respective youth teams. On July 1, only the football team will remain in a clearly multi-sport club.
This situation arises despite the fact that Laporta, during his election campaign, explained that the intention was to increase the number of women's sections at Barça, taking a first step with handball. In 2022, there was an approach between the Barça club and Handbol Sant Joan Despí regarding a possible takeover, but it did not come to fruition. "There have been no conversations with Barça, nor is there any possibility of it happening right now," explains Handbol Sant Joan Despí to ARA. "There is no news on this matter," official Barça sources simply inform this newspaper.
Laporta's board of directors' commitment to women's sports has focused almost exclusively on football, which this season has a revenue budget of just over 19 million euros. Barça will begin playing in new Champions League semi-finals—on Sunday, against Chelsea—that could bring the Blaugrana team closer to their fourth European title. The three they have in their trophy cabinets have been achieved with Laporta as president. Even more significant are the social achievements of the spring of 2022, when Barça twice broke the all-time world attendance record for a women's football match and led a paradigm shift that is still ongoing.
The disappearance of women's basketball
The agreement to create a women's handball section would have been similar to Barça's with CB Santfeliuenc for women's basketball, which the Catalan club has decided not to renew on June 30 after 14 years. This move will mean Barça will not have women's basketball next season. It marks the end of an adventure that had begun to unravel in May 2024. when Barça CBS gave up competing in the top national league due to financial problems –the previous season had already opted out of European competition–. Aristides Maillol stated that Barça had fulfilled the agreement and had had to add unforeseen funds so the club could meet the final payments of the season.
Barça made an annual financial contribution of 150,000 euros to Santfeliuenc and provided its kit, medical services, name, and the opportunity to play some matches at the Palau Blaugrana. Management of the base was exclusively for Santfeliuenc, but The first team's was shared between the two clubs since promotion to the Liga Femenina Endesa in 2022. Both the senior and youth categories belong to Santfeliuenc. "Barça hasn't explained the reasons for not renewing the agreement, but the possibility of Barça creating its own women's basketball section has been discussed for some time. Now we'll have to see if that ends up being the case or not," a member of the Santfeliuenc board explained to ARA.
For their part, official Barça sources point to a logistical issue for not renewing the agreement and say nothing about the possible creation of a Barça women's basketball infrastructure: "It's an issue of saturation of facilities (both our own and external) and club resources that don't allow the women's team to work in adequate conditions. Therefore, we are not in the right context to make a commitment following FC Barcelona standards."
Female players fleeing rugby
The situation for Barça women's rugby is also not good, as it is not part of Barça's structure and is managed by the Barça Veterans Association. The season began with the departure of the coaching staff and half of the first-team players. The Blaugrana team failed to appear for the first matchday of the Queen's Cup and postponed the second. Its participation in La Liga was even in jeopardy. The reasons were the players' training conditions, with an insufficient number of sessions, excessively limited space, and schedules that were difficult to reconcile with work. The season ended with relegation from the top division.
"We've been doing everything possible for many years to become part of Barça's structure, but they haven't wanted us," Sílvia Julià, the team's captain, explained to ARA. "First, they told us they would absorb us when we moved up to División de Honor B, and then that they would do it when we moved up to División de Honor A. We achieved both and we're still in the same situation," she laments. What are the consequences of not being part of the club? "In many situations, they tell us that, since Barça is the one who pays the rent for the field [at La Teixonera], the men's team, which does belong to the club, has more space than we do to train." The players don't want to experience another season like this. "We've already made it clear that, between May and June, we want to know about next year's project: the coach, the coaching staff, and the training schedules and space. Based on that, the players will decide whether to continue or not," Julià warns.
Resignation and relegation from volleyball
The last few years of Barça women's volleyball, which has an agreement with Club Voleibol Barcelona, have also been eventful. In the 2022-2023 season, Barça CVB achieved promotion to the top national division, the Liga Iberdrola, after finishing first in their Superliga 2 group and winning the promotion phase without losing a match. The players have already faced this promotion phase. with the information that Barça would give up its place in the Iberdrola League due to financial problems. Instead, Barça decided that the men's first team would continue playing in the top division, the División de Honor. The argument put forward by the club at the time was that "the women's team is linked to Club Voleibol Barcelona, and this makes the situation different from that of the men's team," which is directly owned by Barça.
Barça's players earned promotion back to the league for the 2023-2024 season. "This time, Barça said they would try to compete in the Liga Iberdrola, but with a very low budget for the division," says Sara Esteban, a member of the Barça CVB squad for the last two promotions. The consequence has been relegation after finishing the current season in last place in the league with just four points. "In the First Division, you train in the mornings, and that's incompatible with work. I left Barça because at 28, I couldn't afford to live on that salary alone," explains Esteban.