Rayo Vallecano's story is one of the clearest examples of how neglect can bring down a historic women's football team. In 2026, the club's decline reached a new low as Rayo's women's side were relegated to Tercera RFEF, the fourth tier of Spanish women's football.

The path to professional football is relatively simple in Europe: players come up through professional clubs’ youth academies where they play for free and then join a senior club squad once they graduate from their academy. In the US, with most professional women’s clubs not having affiliated youth clubs, the landscape is a little more complicated. What does youth football development look like in the United States, and what are the different pathways to going pro?

FC Barcelona continue rebuilding their squad after another historic campaign in 2025/26. The Catalan side completed a remarkable quadruple, defeating OL Lyonnes in the UEFA Women's Champions League final (4:0) before also lifting Liga F, the Copa de la Reina and the Spanish Super Cup.

The transfer window is still in full swing, and women's footballalready witnessed some big moves. Alexia Putellas to London City Lionesses, Katie McCabe to Chelsea, Georgia Stanway to Arsenal. But this summer has also been interesting from a financial perspective. Real Madrid invested in young talent Felicia Schröder, while Barcelona put their faith in experienced Kerolin.

When the NWSL first kicked off in 2013, there were only three official league-wide sponsors and one broadcasting partner who agreed to air just nine matches that season. The club themselves relied on small local partnerships for their front of kit sponsors, with each club having only one to two. Today, the league has 15 league-wide partnerships with brands and 12 media partners, including four broadcasters. More impressively, clubs’ individual sponsorships add up to over 400 brand partners.

Few players evoke as much emotion as Katie McCabe. There are fans who love her, the other cannot stand her. McCabe is the type of player you adore when she plays for your team and despise when she plays against you. Men's football, meanwhile, is full of players like that.

It has been a challenging week for women's football, with several major issues dominating the headlines. Concerns have been raised over the future of the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup, while the ongoing Women's Africa Cup of Nations struggles the lack of media coverage. There has been plenty of positive news, too. Here's everything you need to know in last week's edition of QB Weekly.

Ever since the NWSL established its U18 Entry Mechanism, allowing football’s youngest stars to achieve their professional dreams, the league has seen an influx of younger players giving even the most experienced footballers a hard time. Who are the best young players in the NWSL?

Are goalkeepers judged more harshly in women's football? Do mainstream media focus only on their worst mistakes? And how has the success of UEFA Women's EURO 2017 influenced the growth of women's football in the Netherlands? We discussed all of this in the latest episode of QB Originals with PSV Eindhoven goalkeeper Lisan Alkemade.