"I love Jenni Hermoso and Olga, I just love watching them play," says Sofia Menendez, 15.

A promising young football player herself, Menendez has been inspired by Spain's Women's World Cup winners.

"I just think that if they can do it even when some of the players are really young, that maybe one day in the future I could do that too," she says.

Menendez plays for Olimpia Las Rozas FC. She is speaking to CGTN as she's about to play against Real Madrid's Academy team in a preseason friendly.

Sofia's father Mario is there to watch the game too, and in the midst of the Luis Rubiales kiss scandal at the Women's World Cup Final, he says Spain has a "great opportunity."

"Speaking as a dad," he begins, "I want to make sure that my daughter has the best opportunities to excel at the sport that she loves, she's been playing soccer since she was four years old. She wakes up and thinks about soccer, before she goes to bed she thinks about soccer, and when she's dreaming she's thinking about soccer."

He adds: "I think it's a really good reflection point for the organizations not just in Spain but throughout the world to make sure that girls are getting the best treatment, and equal treatment. Not just in sport but in society itself." 

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Spain shows Rubiales the red card

As the Rubiales saga continues, Spain is already moving beyond him and what he's come to represent.

One El Pais newspaper columnist called him "yesterday's man," another journalist from the Basque country talked about all Spanish women having to deal with a Rubiales in some form. "A boss, teacher, a coworker, a friend, you," she wrote.

Rubiales has been suspended by FIFA for 90 days and could now potentially face a criminal charge for that kiss.

The Spanish Football Federation has unanimously called for him to step down and promised a 'new era' with "deep and imminent structural change."

We've seen the clash of a society that's moved on with an institution that has refused to.

This is a story about power, impunity, and entitlement, one we've seen before at the top of big sporting institutions. A story that's gone beyond football and sport, with many calling this Spain's 'MeToo' moment.

It's not surprising that Rubiales acted the way he did, when the football federation chief before him – Angel Maria Villa – spent 29 years in his position before he was finally removed, charged with corruption and embezzlement.

Or that the head coach of the women's team Jorge Vilda refuses to resign despite the players being on strike until he, Rubiales, and the entire administration is gone. The previous head coach – Ignacio 'Nacho' Querada – kept his job for 27 years. He started in 1988 and the women's team didn't make their first World Cup until 2015. That sparked another boycott from the women's team.

It isn't hard to see what the acting Minister for Labour Yolanda Diaz meant when she talked about "structural machismo (chauvinism)" at the RFEF. Female footballers earn 12 times less than the men and of the 140 federation assembly general members, only six are women.

 

"The tip of the iceberg"

Far from the world of football in the Gorilla city-center Madrid gym, there's no getting away from El caso Rubiales.

Personal trainer Adriana Correas feels strongly about the issue and it's a constant topic of conservation as the rolling news cycle brings up-to-the-minute updates.

"This is the tip of the iceberg," Adriana tells CGTN. "I studied sports, I was the only girl in a class full of boys in university, now I am the only female trainer in a club full of men.

"I played rugby at a high level and saw the men at my same level getting paid, getting opportunities, getting media attention while we got none of that.

"Women must be given the same importance and salaries as men at the same level, the institutions must be completely cleaned out and filled with women that are directors because we are as capable as the men."

Change is in the air and on the ground in Spanish sports and beyond.

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