Eibar president Amaia Gorostiza (pictured right, alongside Leganes president Victoria Pavon) has spoken of her ‘pride’ of the club’s board being comprised of a female majority, ‘reflecting’ the Basque city and society.
The Basque side have become a regular fixture in La Liga since their inaugural promotion in 2015 with Gorostiza leading a club who are Spanish club were most board positions are occupied by women.
“Eibar is a city where women have always had a very big role in every aspect of society and the club is nothing else but a reflection of this trait,” Gorostiza – whose side face Real Madrid on Saturday – told an interview with Reuters.
“We don’t have any policy in the club and this all happened naturally, we haven’t pushed it. Whenever we employ someone the only thing we look for in candidates is quality. We look for ability and worthiness without considering gender.
“I cannot deny the evidence that today being a woman in a position of business responsibility still exposes you to certain attitudes which are never applied to men, but that is changing and those attitudes will disappear eventually.
“I prefer not to give any importance to these incidents or enter into details. Things end up falling into place and you have to do things as naturally as possible.
“We’ve never aspired to be an example in this or any aspect, we just do what we believe.
“But if there are other clubs and organisations that believe that there are some things they can learn from us that’s great, and we feel proud about that.”
Eibar’s Patricia Rodriguez is the only female CEO in La Liga also spoke of the difficulties which her gender has brought her in football.
“It was not easy. In my first months, when I spoke, sometimes my opinion was not heard as much as that of my male colleagues,” Rodriguez said in the same Reuters feature.
“I had to make an effort to show people my work and achieve my targets at the club. I had to show I can do the same amount of work or be better than my male colleagues. But now I can say that all my colleagues behave normally with me.”
