A small football association, the Spanish Girl's Club, was set up and sponsored two teams, Montserrat and Giralda.

[9]: 315–317 In 1920, there was report of a football match between women's teams in Irun, albeit advertised by the skimpy kits the players would wear, setting the tone for press coverage during the decade.

It quickly sponsored four professional teams – Levante, España, Atlético and Valencia – which toured Spain and Latin America, while FC Barcelona added Ana María Martínez Sagi, who believed in feminism through sports, to its board of directors in 1934.

[12][9]: 320–321  The Sección Femenina, a fascist pro-misogyny political advocacy group, was incorporated into the dictatorship during the regime, suppressing women's rights.

This ironically encouraged the growth of women's football in Barcelona, as a means of community-building,[16] and several teams thrived;[17][18] by 1970, in Spain, women's football teams were playing unacknowledged competitive matches and reportedly played "extremely well".

[20] Women began practicing athletics in Spain in 1960, when female relatives of male athletes began using the facilities at Montjuïc in Barcelona and, facing pushback, sought legal advice to say that as Barcelona citizens they could use any sports facility in the city; a decade later, Mundo Deportivo wrote that this set a precedent for women to play football, as the ban, something the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) took as a given, was probably not legal.

The newspaper suggested that it would be reasonable for women's football to be brought under RFEF control rather than develop at its own pace.

The newspaper described women's football as an overnight sensation; like the Fuengirola Trophy, most competitions were supported by advertising money.

[22] When UEFA polled its members in 1970, Spain was one of five that declined to provide information on women's football.

[citation needed] Victoria Hernández then became the first female footballer to sign a "professional" contract – one stipulating remuneration per game played – in 1971,[23] and several players were good enough to join teams in other European countries with better-developed women's football culture.

[22] Following the initial growth in prominence, the government department Educación y Descanso [es], which managed recreation, took over the organisation of women's football.

Though competition still took place, Catalan women's football under Educación y Descanso was described as "hidden, clandestine, silent."

[27] Prior to winning the 2023 World Cup, the furthest the senior national team reached at international competition was the semi-finals at UEFA Euro 1997.