Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

The summer of 2017 witnessed the launch of Liga Femenil MX (LFMX). This paper analyzes the evolution of the first professional women’s football league during its first three tournaments. Two dimensions of the game, the on-field actors and the organizational-administrative dimension, help to analyze change and continuity within LMXF as well as its evolutionary perspectives. As a result of the insufficient academic literature, the overwhelming majority of information is obtained from journalistic sources, as well as from direct semi-structured interviews with the teams’ administrative staff. The main objective is to assess whether the broader advancement of women in sports domains other than football has translated into an effective advancement of women’s professional football. The results confirm that the differences with the men’s league are diminishing; however, rather than Federación Mexicana de Futbol (FMF) designing specific policies fostering a greater women’s involvement in different positions within Mexican football, it is the nonfootball women’s advancement within the broader Mexican society as well as international commitments that may explain the growing participation of women in Mexican football. Based on the results, four scenarios of evolution or retrogression are outlined.