Towards Normalization of Women’s Football in Spanish Sports Journalism: Analysis of 2021 UEFA Women’s Champions League Final Broadcasts

Abstract

This research focuses on the audiovisual broadcasts of the UEFA Women’s Champions League final won by FC Barcelona in 2021. The primary aim of this study is to analyze Spanish media discourses with three specific objectives: to determine the presence or absence of sexism; to identify alternative narratives that may emerge in the broadcasts; and to evaluate whether sports media normalizes these narratives or generates more subtle forms of sexism in the representation of women in football. Sports broadcasting often features sensationalist narratives that can escalate to sexist speech, configured as hate speech, inciting different degrees of aggression or violence. This condition diminishes the potential of sports as a space for coexistence. This article presents a qualitative and quantitative thematic analysis. Following Fuller (2006), Hesse-Biber (2017), and Mart´ınez-Corcuera et al. (2022), we applied coding techniques to examine content related to the representation and participation of women in football. Conclusion reveals a minimal presence of discourses that belittle or marginalize female football players, although multiple alternative narratives that demand equality and recognition are also observed. These findings are consistent with numerous European studies that recognize women’s football, although bias against female athletes compared to their male counterparts still persists.