Pride or Backlash? Public Attitudes Towards the Spanish Women's National Football Team

David Moscoso-Sánchez¹Sara Pasadas-del-Amo¹Rodrigo Ramis-Moyano¹Manuel Trujillo Carmona^2,3*

• ¹University of Cordoba, Córdoba, Spain
• ²Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados de Andalucia, Córdoba, Spain
• ³Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid, Spain

In August 2023, Spain's Women's National Football Team won the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time. Beyond sporting success, this victory became a catalyst for intense public debate on gender equality and athlete activism. Shortly after the tournament, two events brought these issues to the forefront: the non-consensual kiss by the president of the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF), which triggered nationwide protests under the hashtag #SeAcabó ("It's over"), and a strike by players demanding better working conditions and higher wages. While these events deepened discussions about sexism in sport, they also revealed strong ideological divisions in Spanish society. This article examines how Spaniards perceived these events and the players' labour activism. Drawing on nationally representative data from the October 2023 Barometer of the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS), we analyse support for the players' demands and satisfaction with the team's victory. Using binary logistic regression models, we assess how sociodemographic and political factors shape these attitudes. Results show broad public support for footballers' demands but with marked ideological and gender divides. Women and left-wing citizens express stronger solidarity with the players, while right-wing and VOX voters are less supportive and less satisfied with the team's success. These findings highlight how sport, gender, and politics intersect in Spain's contemporary public sphere and demonstrate that women's sport can serve both as a site of empowerment and a field of cultural and political contestation.