Experiences and Narratives in Women’s Professional Football in Spain: The Cases of Athletic Bilbao and Unión Deportiva Tenerife

This article compares two women’s professional football clubs at the top Spanish league: Athletic Bilbao and Unión Deportiva Tenerife. These clubs represent two contrasting organizational models (respectively, a women’s team in a men’s club with a long tradition vs. a recently created exclusively women’s club). Our objectives are to understand the potential discursive differences based on the institutional frameworks in which each team has developed and to identify common areas of discourse around shared concerns. Through a series of in-depth interviews, we present both discursive blocks to identify the institutional differences and the characteristics of the places where their activities are carried out. These cases articulate a differential vision in various aspects of great relevance, among them, the very meaning of women’s football.