To mark International Women’s Football Day, APPLE TREE has launched the awareness campaign “Passion is the Same”, featuring the youngest players from Women’s Soccer School Barcelona and CE Seagull Badalona.
The campaign celebrates women’s football while calling on institutions, the media, and society as a whole to continue tackling inequality.
In the campaign viewers see these young players competing with passion and determination. Their impossible plays and epic celebrations are narrated by some of Spain’s most recognized football commentators ; Miguel Quintana (Radio Marca); Lluís Flaquer (Cadena SER); Bernat Soler (Catalunya Ràdio) and Javier Amaro (Radio Marca), underscoring that the passion of these little girls is the same as that of the boys, although they have fewer opportunities.
Carme Miró, CEO and founder of APPLE TREE, explained the motivation behind the campaign: “We created this campaign to confront two realities from football’s most powerful place: passion. Our goal as an agency is to fight inequality through grassroots sport and drive meaningful change in the future of these girls.”
For her part, Soraya Chaoui, general director of Women’s Soccer School, stresses the need to draw the attention of institutions, the media and society in general to ensure that promising young women’s soccer players have the same opportunities as men’s soccer players: “With this campaign we want to show that our players work as hard, if not harder than boys. That’s why we are demanding equal access to facilities and support from institutions and sponsors, so the future stars of women’s football can fulfill their dreams.”
The campaign, made up of two videos in Spanish and Catalan and radio spots, stems from a very powerful insight: passion for soccer has no gender. Women train with the same intensity, fall just as hard, and dream just as big as boys.
The inequality that persists
Yet major gaps remain in opportunities, investment, visibility, and respect. According to FIFA’s Annual Women’s Football Report, women’s football generates an average of $4.4 million in revenue per team, but spends $7.7 million, with only 42% of third division clubs having a main sponsor. Pay disparity is equally stark: in Spain, female players earn on average €22,500 per year, compared with €182,000 for men, a gap of €159,000.
Media visibility also lags far behind. In 2024, women’s sports accounted for just 25% of total coverage, with football showing the widest gender gap according to The Visibility of Women Athletes study.
On top of this, access to public playing fields remains limited, leaving many girls without the infrastructure they need to train and play. Soccer teams denounce the fact that institutions are still not clearly committed to women’s grassroots soccer, which hinders the development of an infrastructure where girls can fulfil their dream of being soccer players on equal terms with boys.
APPLE TREE’s commitment
The campaign ‘The passion is the same’ was developed by APPLE TREE, Spain’s leading agency in creativity and innovation, founded 18 years ago with a mission to change the world through communication. With values grounded in courage and goodness, the agency has consistently led social change and delivered campaigns with positive societal impact.
Promoting gender equality has always been central to APPLE TREE’s DNA, especially in fields where inequality persists, such as sport. As part of this commitment, the agency sponsors three girls’ football teams: CFF Olympia Las Rozas (Madrid), Women’s Soccer School (Barcelona), and CE Seagull (Badalona) to support young players in their dream of becoming professional footballers.
