Colombian women’s soccer scandal

Colombian authorities announced on Friday that they were investigating several clubs suspected of trying to torpedo the league. Women’s Footballin a country where female players face machismo and lack of support every day.

The General Inspection of Industry and Commerce (SIC) investigates alleged practices within Dimayor – which manages, under the authority of the Colombian Football Federation, professional clubs – and 29 teams, which allegedly offer low salaries to players and refuse to accept subsidies for the women’s championship.

These clubs and Dimayor “will not accept to receive public money offered by the government to promote women’s soccer in our country,” declared Francisco Melo, who manages free competition within the SIC, in a press conference. According to him, this refusal to receive subsidies is motivated by the fact that the clubs do not want the use of these funds to be audited and controlled by the authorities.

According to Melo, the clubs would have systematized a practice aimed at preventing players from exploiting their image rights and would have done nothing to promote the broadcast of the women’s league on television. “These events can hinder the development of women’s football in Colombia,” he added.

Dimayor president Fernando Jaramillo assured that his organization respects the proper progress of the investigation, although he denied the accusations. “We will use all legal steps and means at our disposal to prove them wrong,” he assured the media.

Since the creation of the Colombian women’s league in 2017, players have said their contracts are not truly professional due to the tournament’s short duration and contractual conditions. The competition only lasts for five months and many soccer players have to find other jobs to survive the rest of the year.