News

Iberdrola has renewed its commitment to women’s football through the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and will redouble its support for all competitions of this sport for the next six seasons, until 2024-25.

To coincide with the draw for the matches in the coming 2019-20 season, which will start on 8 September, the company has announced that it will give its name to women’s sports top competition, which will be renamed Primera Iberdrola; and the second division, which is now called Reto Iberdrola, as well as sponsoring the Queen’s Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. This is the company’s way of showing its commitment to all categories of women’s football.

The chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, highlighted the company’s role as “the leading advocate of women's sport” and reiterated his “commitment to keep working for equality by promoting sport for women”.

The Primera Iberdrola will kick off with some new additions, among which are the addition of a fourth referee and the obligation for clubs to have at least three grassroots football teams. 

The RFEF agreement comes days after the company reaffirmed its commitment to the Women’s Universe Programme from the Higher Sports Council (CSD).

Iberdrola and women’s sport, in figures

In 2016, Iberdrola became the first company to make a global commitment to encouraging women’s participation in sport as a way of driving equal opportunities.

The company currently supports 16 federations: gymnastics, triathlon, rugby, canoeing, badminton, football, handball, volleyball, hockey, table tennis, athletics, karate, boxing, surfing, ice sports and fencing. It also lends its name to 22 national top level sports leagues, and over 35 competitions.

These additional funds have increased the number of federated members in these 16 disciplines by 32%, of whom there are now 316,500. In addition, athletes have been provided with the necessary infrastructure - facilities, transportation, medical services, referees and other technical support - all of which have improved national competitions. This is allowing Spanish elite athletes, who have spent their sports career in other countries, to return to compete in Spain. 

Liga Iberdrola, now Primera Iberdrola, has also achieved a notable increase in popularity, reaching 60,739 spectators this season at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium during the match between Club Atlético de Madrid Femenino and FC Barcelona. In recent years, over twelve men's first division stadiums have opened their doors to hold matches in this competition.

Sport, crucial for promoting equality

Real equality between men and women is one of Iberdrola’s core values. With its commitment to women's sport, the company helps to create new role models for society, to encourage healthy habits at an early age.

Iberdrola drives and disseminates the role of women in sport through other initiatives, like the ‘Women’s Universe Tour’, in collaboration with the Higher Sports Council and the Fundación Deporte Joven, whose purpose is to transmit values like hard work and overcoming, by practising and showing several disciplines and spreading the word about the success of Spanish athletes. 

The large area of influence of both institutions will also enable Iberdrola and the RFEF to go further with their commitment to transforming the Spanish Women’s Football Team into the first Sustainable Team, to raise awareness of the importance of promoting sustainable development based on renewable energies as a way of fighting climate change.

Iberdrola, committed to the SDGs

Iberdrola has fully incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) into its strategy. The goals are part of the 2030 Agenda and were approved by the UN in September 2015.

In line with its activities, Iberdrola focuses its efforts on the provision of affordable and clean energy (Goal 7) and climate action (Goal 13), as well as fulfilling other objectives.

By supporting women in sport, Iberdrola is focusing its efforts on gender equality and female empowerment (Goal 5), health and well-being (Goal 3) and promoting public-private initiatives (Goal 17).