The first women's match in Spain turns 50 this Tuesday

Madrid, December 8, 1970. Women's football was once again breaking into Spain, with a pioneering match in this discipline, which had been silenced for decades. It was at the Boetticher football field, located in the Madrid neighborhood of Villaverde and the event brought together nothing more and nothing less than 8,000 people in the stands. On the field, there were two of the first clubs in this category, Sizam and Mercacredit (later renamed Olímpico Villaverde).

Same place, same time and same place. 50 years later, the same field opens its doors for an intimate tribute that will be held this Tuesday (12: 00h) with the aim of highlighting the great effort and subsequent achievement that that event meant for Spanish women's football. The event will be led by Rafa Muga, a great pioneer in Spain in organizing women's matches and tournaments and founder of the first Spanish women's team, misnamed by many the 'clandestine selection'.

The latter is because the Spanish team led by Muga did not then have recognition from the Royal Spanish Football Federation, which paid off its debt in November 2019 with a tribute to all the pioneers and to Muga himself. The Extremaduran will once again lead, as 50 years ago, this tribute to the female soccer player, after the failed attempt by the Municipal District Board to carry out this initiative, which was suspended due to COVID-19. In the act a speech in connection with this 50th anniversary will be read before Muga introduces the pioneering attendees together with a brief memorandum and a minute of silence is observed in memory of those who are no longer with us.

It should be remembered that that game in Villaverde marked the beginning of a long road that continues to this day. But that was not easy taking place amid the surprise of a society submerged in a long and already weakened dictatorship. Those were years in which women, relegated to household chores, began to raise their voices and even claim their place in sports and football.

“At the end of the event I was forced to go through the Villaverde Civil Guard Barracks. The truth is that I was quite scared, despite the fact that about 50 people accompanied me. The Commander of the post was waiting for me there, and he still couldn't believe that a women's football match had been held “, recalls Muga in a recent interview with AS. The Extremaduran was then president of Mercacredit and confessed to AS that success overwhelmed any initial forecast, multiplying the applications for admission after the game.

Diario AS received a tribute for its support of women's football

Two days before that historic match, a tribute was held to Diario AS in the same field, that of Boetticher, in order to highlight their commitment to women's football. In those years, with the dictatorship still alive, in Spain it was not a holiday on the 6th, but that did not mean that it was a great party with the presence of the journalist Manuel Román, former Atlético player José Eulogio Gárate and actress Concha Velasco.

That was the prelude to what two days later would mark a before and after in Spanish women's football, which then took the first steps. A category that these days is celebrating, after 50 years of struggle that have already found the first fruits. On the edge of professionalization, which will take place from 2021-22 with a legal consideration of the Professional League, and after the signing of the first collective agreement, Spanish women's football is beginning to receive the recognition it deserves.