Barcelona's basketball
club with
the most federated
women players.
250 federated players. #1 of 55 Barcelona clubs. TOP 12 in Catalonia. 1 in every 15 players in the city trains at CB Grup Barna. With no LF2 team in Barcelona, no nearby role models, no institutional funding directed at women's basketball — and still, here in El Clot, basketball has been for everyone for 60 years.
The number 1 club
in women's basketball in Barcelona.
This isn't a branding claim. It's the result of comparing official IDESCAT 2025 data and the census of Barcelona city clubs (Xavier Boix, 2024) with CB Grup Barna's federated licences in the 2024-2025 season.
6.61% isn't small.
It's the leader's share.
In a fragmented market with 55 basketball clubs in Barcelona city, leading with 6.61% is the normal result for a leader in a highly dispersed sector. It's the same logic that governs leadership in fragmented markets: the leader doesn't accumulate the majority, but a disproportionate share of the total.
- 1 in every 15 women's basketball players in Barcelona city trains at CB Grup Barna
- 3.6 times the size of the average Barcelona club (62 licences per club)
- TOP 3% of clubs in Catalonia — the "Champions League" of Catalan women's basketball
- The only club in Barcelona city with a senior women's team in LF2 (the national league)
4.1× the average of Catalonia's clubs
Official sources
- IDESCAT · Institut d'Estadística de Catalunya · 2025 · 411 clubs · 25,215 women's licences · source
- Xavier Boix · Els clubs TOP de Barcelona · February 2024 · census of 49-55 clubs in BCN city · source
- CB Grup Barna internal data · 2024-2025 season · 250 federated women's licences
- Full report in Excel · download (.xlsx)
"We're not the club with the biggest budget. We're not the club with the most sponsors. We are Barcelona's number 1 club for federated women's licences. And with official data behind it, that's not an opinion. It's a verifiable fact."
CB Grup Barna · Market position report · 2025Judit Ortiz.
Player. Entrepreneur. All Star.
Judit Ortiz is one of the players on CB Grup Barna's first senior team, a Supercopa participant and recognised as the competition's All Star. But Judit isn't just a player: she's an entrepreneur and an example of the kind of woman the club wants to celebrate.
In this testimonial she explains what playing for Grup Barna means: the club's culture, its values, the community and the way the sport has helped her grow both on and off the court.
Meet Ainhoa López →"The club doesn't just give you basketball. It gives you a way of seeing the world."
Partners who believe in the project.
CB Grup Barna surrounds itself with an ecosystem of local businesses that invest in women's basketball because they believe in its values. Here, in their own words.
A system that wasn't
designed for them.
Barcelona is Spain's second city. It has 1.6 million residents, 134 girls' grassroots basketball teams and one of the most extensive grassroots bases in Europe. And yet its conversion rate of women's talent to national-level categories is just 0.75%.
"The gender gap in sport is not a talent deficit. It's an architectural design failure in the system."
CB Grup Barna · Structural Research on the Gender Gap · 202660 years in El Clot. One neighbourhood. One model.
CB Grup Barna was founded in 1965 in the El Clot neighbourhood, in Barcelona's Sant Martí District. Joan Manuel Serrat, a neighbourhood resident, was one of the entity's co-founders.
Today: 450+ members, 40 teams (20 girls' + 20 boys', a 1:1 ratio), 38 active women coaches (65.5% of the technical staff), among the 20 best clubs in Catalonia.
From El Clot to the elite:
a neighbourhood's legacy.
If we talk about Barcelona as the capital of basketball, we can't forget that players who reached the elite of Catalan, Spanish and European basketball came up through CB Grup Barna's youth system. Cesar Bravo, Roger Grimau, Iván García, Marta Vicente, Dolors Carbonell — and, back at the club's origins, even two universally known Barcelona singer-songwriters.
"When we say we're a neighbourhood club, we don't mean a small club. We mean a club that, over 60 years, has sent El Clot's boys and girls into professional basketball. Our legacy is already on the front line of Spanish basketball."
CB Grup Barna · Historical record · 1965-2026A system. Not a campaign.
CB Grup Barna allocates 50% of its budget to women's basketball. The sector average is 35%. Investment builds level. Level builds role models. Role models build demand.
38 active women coaches — 65.5% of the technical staff. No federation coaching licence. As far as the FCBQ is concerned, they don't exist. But they coach 40 teams every week in El Clot.
53.7% of the social media audience is female. With no planned campaign at all. Women can tell the club practises equality instead of just talking about it.
The biggest city has
the lowest conversion rate.
| Territory | Population | Conversion rate |
|---|---|---|
| La Seu d'Urgell | 12,000 | 12.5% |
| Mataró | 130,000 | 4% |
| Barcelona | 1,600,000 | 0.75% |
Causes: 0 LF2 teams in Barcelona · 9:30pm time slots for women's games · talent drain to Cornellà and Mataró · 100% male club presidents · the FC Barcelona shadow effect.
Urban basketball.
Community. Inclusion.
Three consecutive editions. ~1,900,000 potential impressions via influencers. 67,028 combined followers of the organisers. 20,000 people reached at the shopping centre. Urban basketball has found a home in the centre of Barcelona.
2026 edition: new EQUALS category (players with functional diversity share the court with players without disabilities) + an expanded women's category with a standout appearance by Ari Geli (1M followers).
The 5 Theories of the Barna Method
Why this candidacy.
A basketball club, not an exception
This candidacy isn't presented from a place of singularity or exceptionalism. It's presented from a sober, measurable statement: CB Grup Barna has 250 federated women players, more than any other basketball club in Barcelona city. The comparison is strict: only with other basketball clubs, because basketball has its own structural dynamics that can't be equated with other sports.
What this means for Barcelona
If the largest club has 250 licences and the city average sits at 54, it means Barcelona's women's talent is fragmented across small clubs, without the critical mass needed to build a top-level competitive structure. This is one of the factors behind Barcelona having no women's team in LF2. Fragmentation is the problem. Concentrating talent in projects like CB Grup Barna is part of the solution.
What already works here
What CB Grup Barna demonstrates every week at the Parc del Clot is that parity isn't an aspiration: it's an established practice. 20 women's teams. 20 men's teams. 38 active women coaches. 65.5% female technical staff. 50% of the budget for women's basketball. And above all: real, continuous development, from age 5 through to senior level, where no girl in the neighbourhood is left without a place to play.
Why recognition matters
For us, the 19è Premi Dona i Esport is a lever: to make a working model visible, so other Barcelona clubs can replicate it, so institutions reinforce it, and so the girls of the neighbourhood know their club has been recognised as a civic benchmark. We're not asking for a lifetime-achievement award. We're asking for our track record to stop being an exception.
"Equality in sport isn't legislated. It's built, from the ground up, from a neighbourhood. And sometimes, when it works, all it takes is for someone to show it."
CB Grup Barna · El Clot · Barcelona · 1965-2026A candidacy
with history.
This isn't a new candidacy. Last year, CB Grup Barna finished among the three best proposals for the Premi Dona i Esport. That recognition wasn't a destination; it was a starting point. This year we're back with more data, more evidence, more proposals — and a clear horizon through to 2030.
- 34 federated teams
- 400 players
- 45% women's teams
- 1st BCN club with a senior women's team in LF2
- 1 Basketball School
- 1 Barna Màgics (special education)
- Pioneering Westfield Glòries agreement · May 2024
- Consolidated alliance with Time Chamber
- 5 heavyweight testimonials from the sport
- 40 teams federated (+6)
- 450+ members and families (+50)
- 50% real parity 20F/20M (+5pp)
- 250 women's licences · #1 of 55 BCN clubs
- TOP 12 in Catalonia · 411 clubs analysed
- 38 women coaches active · 65.5% of staff
- 50% of budget directed to women's basketball
- 53.7% audience organic on IG
- 7 pieces of research documented
- Barna Method · 5 academic theories
- Mayor Collboni's visit · 9 Feb 2026
- 3x3 Westfield Glòries · 2.4M impressions
- Barna 8M Fund · proposal to the FCBQ
- Barcelona LF2 Plan · 1st team in the city
- El Clot Technical Development Centre · 2027
- BCN Women's League · 2027
- "Barcelona Talent" Programme · 2026
- Citizens' Pact for Women's Basketball · 2026
- 100 active women coaches · BCN 2030
- Women's talent conversion: 0.75% → 5%+
- Ambition of the candidacy: going beyond the TOP 3
"Last year's TOP 3 wasn't a trophy — it was a mandate. If the sector recognised what we were doing, we had to do it better. This candidacy is proof that we took that recognition seriously."
CB Grup Barna · Candidacy record · 2025-2026Recognition
from the sport.
These aren't our own words. Five heavyweight figures from Catalan and Spanish professional basketball put in writing what they think of CB Grup Barna. Their voices, side by side, are the best summary of what we stand for.
"Working with CB Grup Barna is a privilege. Their way of understanding sport as an educational tool and a driver of social change is admirable. Especially in the fight for women's basketball, where the club does incredible work to give players visibility and opportunities."
Leading basketball academy in Europe
"Their commitment to women's basketball is exceptional and admirable. It's a club that understands sport as a powerful tool for personal and social change, and that works every day to create opportunities for girls. We're proud to share values and goals with them."
National school competition
"CB Grup Barna is a benchmark for women's basketball in Barcelona. Always working to promote women's sport at the highest level in the city, with a firm commitment to giving players opportunities and visibility. The club is a model to follow in promoting inclusive, quality basketball."
Head coach at @sese_basquet
"CB Grup Barna is a club that does very good work in women's basketball, both for each player individually and in its participation across every activity. It's a benchmark for women's sport in Barcelona and an institution committed to the development of sport at every level."
Director of Gràcia Multiesports
"I'm very proud and happy that my family is part of a club that has, historically, fought for and empowered women in every area through sport. CB Grup Barna doesn't just stand out for its commitment to women's basketball, but also for its work in creating an inclusive, equal environment. It's an honour to see the club keep advancing on this important mission."
Spanish women's national team selector
"This candidacy isn't an application. It's an outside reading of who we already are. Five Catalan and Spanish women's basketball professionals say it in their own words: we are a benchmark."
CB Grup Barna · Collected testimonials · 2025Barcelona,
capital of women's basketball.
Recognising a crisis is the first step to solving it. Barcelona's women's basketball is living through a diagnosed structural crisis. But Barcelona also has every asset it needs to become the benchmark for women's basketball in Catalonia and southern Europe: 134 grassroots girls' teams, a network of clubs with history, proximity to FC Barcelona, Joventut and Granollers, and a new generation that no longer accepts the status quo.
What follows are 6 concrete proposals with a 2030 horizon. Some CB Grup Barna can lead alone. Others require an alliance with clubs, institutions and sponsors. All of them are necessary.
- × 0 LF2 teams in Barcelona city
- × 0.75% women's talent conversion
- × 100% male club presidents
- × Talent fragmented across small clubs
- × 38 women coaches at just 1 club
- × No city-wide women's competition
- → 1 LF2 team in the city by 2030
- → 5%+ women's talent conversion
- → Real parity on governing boards
- → A technical development centre in El Clot
- → 100+ coaches in a BCN network
- → Annual BCN Women's League
Barcelona LF2 Plan 2030
The first Barcelona-based player with her team in Liga Femenina 2, playing in Barcelona city. A strategic alliance between Barcelona clubs with competitive women's sections. Roadmap: 2026-27 selection of allied clubs · 2028 joint competitive structure · 2030 first BCN team in LF2.
El Clot Women's
Development Centre
Stop the drain of talent to Cornellà and Mataró. A centre in the Parc del Clot where the best players from every club in Barcelona city can train four days a week without having to travel. Initial capacity: 60 players. Sustained through an agreement with IBE and partner clubs.
BCN Women's League
A competition where talent can meet. Summer league and winter tournaments with every women's club in Barcelona city. Broadcasts, individual awards, media visibility and dedicated sponsorship. A format inspired by 3x3 Westfield Glòries, already proven, but at city scale.
"Barcelona Talent" Programme
Identify talent before it leaves. An early identification programme in the city's schools and clubs, with scholarships that let players combine their studies and sporting career without having to leave Barcelona. Goal: go from 0.75% to 3% talent conversion in 5 years.
Citizens' Pact for
Women's Basketball
An agreement signed by Barcelona City Council, IBE, FCBQ, the 17 clubs with women's sections and major sponsors. Dedicated budget. Prime-time court slots for women's games (not 9:30pm). Institutional visibility. Measurable commitments, audited annually.
100 Coaches by 2030
Multiply the technical pipeline. A training, mentoring and certification programme to reach 100+ active women coaches in Barcelona city before 2030. CB Grup Barna as the benchmark training club, in alliance with the FCBQ and its Coach Mentoring programme. Wipe out the 9% figure for women in the Curs Superior.
We're not asking Barcelona to stop being what it is. We're asking Barcelona to also be what it can be: a city where any girl can play basketball, develop, reach the elite and come back — without ever having to leave.
