In July 2020, Real Madrid's emergence into League F, then called Primera Iberdrola, was completed. An entry that had been demanded for years and that promised to give a definitive boost to Spanish women's football. Today, almost four years later, the reality is very different. Eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage for the second consecutive year, they are 9 points behind the leader (FC Barcelona) and did not even manage to qualify for the Super Cup final, in which they fell in the quarterfinals against the Blaugrana.
Without titles in their showcases, without identity and surrounded by secrecy, some speak of a crisis in the women's Real Madrid, but what is being seen is nothing more than the consequence of the lack of a clear sporting project. In 2019 they bought Tacón for 300,000 euros, a club that they converted into Real Madrid the following year. It was born with the ambition of being one of the great women's clubs, not only in Spain, but in Europe, but the balance of its first three seasons of life is two runners-up in the League, a runner-up in the Cup and a quarterfinal in the Champions in their first year in Europe, their best record to date. Over time, the distance with the greatest ones not only does not shorten, but rather widens. In the League they have proven to be incapable of competing with FC Barcelona and in Europe they have had their worst participation in history after adding only one point out of a possible 18.
The question now is how long it will take for Florentino Pérez to tire of injecting money into a section unable to add any trophies to its cabinets in almost four years. And the white team has been increasing its budget from 3.8 million euros in its first season to 9 million in the current one. They have the second largest budget in League F, although it is still far from Barça's 18 million. They are the third European club that generates the most income (7.4 million euros), behind Barcelona (13.4) and Manchester United (8), according to the consulting firm Deloitte.
But it is not just about investing, but also about where to do it, and in this the Catalan entity has proven to be far ahead. His two world attendance records at the Camp Nou brought him an unusual amount of income from ticket sales, around three million euros in the 2022-23 season. In this same period, Real Madrid earned only 711,000 euros. This is because the white club is the only one of the big European clubs that has not yet opened the doors of its main stadium, the Santiago Bernabéu, to the women's team and there is no forecast that this will change, at least in the short term. term.
Another of the hallmarks of the white club is the absolute secrecy that has reigned since its entry into women's football. Their communication policy is silence. Getting an interview with a soccer player is practically an impossible mission and if you do not receive a negative response, the club always demands that you review each and every one of the questions that you want to ask in advance, vetoing practically all questions, as you may have experienced. in first person this diary. But it is not an exclusive problem for La Vanguardia, the only way to approach a Real Madrid player, without vetoes or refusals, is when the international players are focused on their national teams.
There are also no press conferences, no medical reports, and the players or any club worker are strictly prohibited from speaking to the press. Everyone is afraid of reprisals, dismissals, footballers removed from ownership... The problem goes far beyond communication policy. His treatment of female footballers has been highly questioned and it is difficult to find a player who has left the club and speaks well of her experience in the Madrid entity. One of the toughest was Kosovare Asllani, who wore the white shirt for two seasons, between 2020 and 2022. The Swedish international reported having received pressure from the club to play injured: “They refuse to listen to the medical team and the players. It is no coincidence that I was injured and had a relapse, because all the time they pushed you to play injured or sick.” “They treat us like products, not like people,” she denounced, acknowledging that she left Real Madrid “to have a longer career.”
It is not the only case. Marta Corredera lived a real ordeal when she announced that she was pregnant. The Catalan defense has explained how the club left her completely alone, no one called her, they did not offer her help or accompany her during her pregnancy, or after it. They even wanted to remove her from the team and send her to train the reserve team, despite having a professional soccer player contract. The pressure on the medical services to force players who are not fit to play is so frequent that no one lasts in the position for long and every year they have to renew the medical staff.
The treatment of the players, the lack of titles, the communicative secrecy... there are many reasons why the Real Madrid women's project has become a failed project.
