Spain to force football pools to include women's matches

Women's football comes to La Quiniela by decree: punters shrug

La Quiniela, Spain's historic football pools ticket now fading among pensioners and online betting sites, is set to receive an injection of women's football through the bluntest possible route: a legal mandate. This Tuesday, the Spanish Government approves a royal decree-law ordering Loterías y Apuestas del Estado (the state gambling operator) to include four Liga F matches on every ticket, week after week. This is not a market response; it is an administrative order.

The Consejo Superior de Deportes (Spain's national sports council), under the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport, has been working on the project for over a year, as revealed by El País. The goal: to provide stable income for the only professionalised competition in women's football. Behind it lies a lukewarm audience and a pools sector that has seen laughable prize money and a decline in participants for years.

An institutional stretch

The reaction among those who still fill in the ticket has not been unanimous: some see the measure as a useless patch that will attract no one to women's football; others simply point out that La Quiniela no longer interests anyone, even with men's football. There are also those who consider four matches insufficient, a sign that women's football might have more appeal than it is given credit for.

Another administrative twist of the screw

Spanish women's football is strong on the sporting side, with stars like Alexia Putellas, but its economic viability still depends on institutional fixes. The question is whether a decree can create enthusiasm or will only alienate further an audience that is already looking the other way. The tickets have their say; the enthusiasm, we shall see.