Women want to earn a living by playing football

Nayeli Rangel has plenty of experience: She has played in Mexico as well as abroad, and she has even participated in the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2010 and 2015. With this in mind, she knows it is time to speak up and request that the Women’s League of Mexico improves so that, at some point, and hopefully not too far in the future, female players may be able to earn a living.

At a press conference the day before the Women’s League final, the midfield of the Tigres feminine team said: “What we need the most is for this to become a proper profession as it is for male soccer players. So that us women can make a living out of it.”

The attention that the Women’s League has received over the years has been earned “on our own merits. When this started, no one would have imagined that we would end up filling stadiums. So many people have taken an interest in what we do, and we even broke a record at the finals, with 38 thousand people at the University Stadium of UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), so I think we’re on the right track.”

In addition to bettering the wages, Rangel believes that it is even more important to “increase competition and raise the bar, broaden the age range for female players so that those who are over 23 years old are allowed to play. There are so many great players that have been left out because of that rule. I’d also like to see female players from abroad. We need to raise our standards so that the show business may follow.”

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