For most of its history, women’s soccer in Mexico barely registered in the public consciousness. That has started to change. The sport is growing, slowly but steadily, fueled by a simple fact that is hard to ignore: the women’s national team has been performing at a higher level than the men’s team in several international tournaments.
Mexico’s women have qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup three times, in 1999, 2011, and 2015. The men’s team has qualified for more tournaments overall, but the women have matched or exceeded the men’s results in several Concacaf regional competitions. The women have finished as runners-up in the Concacaf W Championship twice, in 1998 and 2010. More significantly, the women reached the quarterfinals of the 2004 Olympics, a stage the men’s team has not reached since 2012. In 2031, Mexico will host the Women’s World Cup, and the director of Liga MX Femenil has stated publicly that she believes Mexico’s women will win that tournament before the men ever win theirs. Whether or not that prediction comes true, the confidence reflects a real shift in perception.
Audiences have noticed. Liga MX Femenil, the professional women’s league, launched in 2017. As of 2025, it is the third-most-attended women’s soccer league in the world, trailing only the United States’ NWSL and Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga. Average attendance sits near 3,100 spectators per match, and total viewership grew by nearly 177% between 2021 and 2023. The league has expanded its broadcast presence to free platforms like YouTube and TikTok, drawing over 22 million views across digital and television platforms during the Clausura 2025 tournament alone. One telling statistic: women’s team jerseys have started to outsell men’s jerseys at some clubs, like Monterrey.
Disparities Remain
Yet for all the growth in visibility, the material conditions for female players lag far behind those of their male counterparts. The gap shows up in salaries, facilities, medical care, and basic respect.
Consider wages. A FIFA report released in early 2025 surveyed 86 leagues and 669 teams worldwide. It found that the average gross salary for a professional women’s soccer player globally was USD $10,900 per year. That number is misleadingly high because it includes top-tier clubs. When broken down, players at Tier 2 clubs averaged USD $4,361 annually, and those at Tier 3 averaged just USD $2,805. By contrast, the average male player in Mexico’s Liga MX earns a base salary in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. The top men’s clubs operate with payrolls exceeding $37 million per season.
The inequality extends beyond paychecks. Former professional player Paola Espino described the early years of Liga MX Femenil, noting that training regimens were copied directly from men’s teams without any adjustment for physiological differences. Players were trained as if they were small men, not women with different biomechanical and hormonal profiles. Yet most clubs in Mexico have not adopted training protocols or medical monitoring that account for these differences.
The physical infrastructure for women’s teams also remains uneven. In March 2025, during a match against Yucatán, the Tijuana women’s team reported that the visiting locker room at their stadium, which featured photos of each female player, had been vandalized. The damage occurred after the men’s team used the same locker room. It was not clear whether players, coaches, or staff were responsible, but the message was unmistakable: the women’s presence was not respected. Incidents like this do not happen in isolation. They reflect a broader culture in which women’s soccer is still treated as an afterthought.
Why the Pay Gap Exists
The reasons for these disparities are no mystery. The men’s game generates more revenue, and it has done so for over a century. But that explanation is incomplete. Liga MX Femenil has demonstrated that it can attract audiences and sponsors. A report from the World Football Summit noted that investing in women’s soccer generates 35% more purchase intent than equivalent investment in men’s soccer, with an average return on investment between 15 and 18 to one. Brands are seeing results. The league doubled its sponsorship agreements and grew its audience from 10 million to 30 million viewers. So the revenue argument is weakening.
A more accurate explanation is structural. Liga MX Femenil was not created because clubs believed in it. It was created because the Mexican Football Federation required men’s first-division clubs to field a women’s team. That mandate launched the league, but it also created a system where some clubs treat their women’s teams as a compliance exercise rather than a genuine investment.
Yet there are reasons for cautious optimism. The gap in facilities and pay is not lost on players or on the public. Stories like Claudia Cid’s receive attention. The director of Liga MX Femenil has acknowledged the need for continued professionalization. And the 2031 Women’s World Cup, which Mexico will host, is expected to accelerate investment and infrastructure. The institutions that govern the sport will be challenged with growing quickly enough to catch up with the players and fans who have already arrived.