XIX Women and Sport Award 2026 · Category City Sports Club
CB Grup Barna.
sixty-one years building
equality.
We don't explain what we want to do. We show what we have already done. For sixty-one years, in the El Clot neighbourhood, in the heart of Barcelona, CB Grup Barna has built a model that makes equality its way of being.
A system that was not designed for them.
Barcelona is the second-largest city in Spain. It has 1.6 million inhabitants, 134 girls' basketball development teams and one of the most extensive training bases in Europe. And yet, its conversion rate of female talent into national-level categories is 0.75%. Out of every hundred girls who start playing, only three make it into the professional game. The other ninety-nine are lost along the way.
This figure is not an anomaly. It is the result of a system built by men, for men, over decades. A system that never thought about the girls of El Clot. A system that CB Grup Barna has spent sixty-one years challenging.
The gender gap in sport is not a deficit of talent. It is a failure in the system's architectural design. And CB Grup Barna is, today, the empirical proof that it can be done differently.
A pedagogical model that does not distinguish between boys and girls — it distinguishes between athletes who grow as people.
The Barna Method is a coherent educational and sporting model, from the Escoleta to senior level, that has shown over six decades that equality is not an option — it is a methodology. It was not born of a strategic plan, but of a founding conviction refined year after year, team after team, coach after coach.
The Method rests on three structural pillars that reinforce one another and make the club's cultural regression impossible.
Mixed groups from day one. Learning to play together, to dribble the ball together, to win and lose together. Equality is not taught — it is lived from the very first bounce. When a five-year-old girl plays alongside a boy and is valued exactly the same, equality becomes the norm, not the exception.
A career that illustrates the method in action: from El Clot to top-level competition. Player in the Liga Femenina Endesa, international with the Spanish National Team, Cum Laude from UB-INEFC. She returned to the neighbourhood while recovering from an autoimmune disease and is today the club's official ambassador. The Barna Method as a lever for talent and social advancement.
The Equality Plan and the 8M Project ensure that the method does not depend on individuals but on structures. Equality as a system, not as an exception. When people change, the structures endure. This is the guarantee of the sustainability of the Barna model.
"Equality is not legislated. It is built, from the ground up, from a neighbourhood."
Concrete, documented and verifiable actions to build a gender-balanced future.
CB Grup Barna's commitment to equality is not merely declarative. It is structured around four operational strands with assigned owners, measurement indicators and public accountability.
A programme created to identify, train and support women who want to become basketball coaches. We are closing the access gap to the bench. So that today's girls see female technical role models on their teams.
Structured mentoring for female coaches and referees. Women who have walked the path support those who are starting out. Knowledge as a collective asset that is not lost between generations.
A formal document with measurable objectives. Not a statement of intent — an operational roadmap with owners, deadlines and success indicators for every area of the club. Reviewable and updatable annually.
The backbone project of 2024. Clear protocols, mandatory training and safe reporting channels. So that basketball is a safe space for every child in El Clot and Barcelona.
Equality begins at the decision-making table.
In the last three years, CB Grup Barna has opened its Board of Directors to women's voices for the first time in its sixty-year history. Not as a symbolic gesture — as a founding act of a new governance model.
The board is a reflection of the club's values. If we want gender-balanced basketball, we have to be gender-balanced ourselves first. This conviction has permanently transformed the club's decision-making structure.
"The board is a reflection of the club's values. If we want gender-balanced basketball, we have to be gender-balanced ourselves first."
From the court to district pacts. CB Grup Barna is a key player in the sporting and community life of Sant Martí and Barcelona.
A gender-balanced international tournament that puts Barcelona's women's basketball on the world map. Teams from various countries sharing the court, values and a single message: sport has no gender.
A fast, accessible and mixed format. 3×3 as a tool for inclusion and equality in Barcelona street basketball. More than 110 participants and 2.4 million impressions on social media.
The youngest girls and boys as the protagonists. The future of basketball, today, in the El Clot neighbourhood. An annual celebration of the start of the sporting journey.
Own organisation of the Women's Super Cup. Visibility for the club's and the area's women's teams. A showcase platform for players such as Judit Ortiz, All Star of the competition.
Formal pacts for the promotion of sport across the districts. The club as an engine of local sports policy, transcending the court to become an agent of social transformation.
Mixed groups from age 5. Learning to play together, to respect each other and to dribble the ball. Equality from the very first bounce. Around 45 children each season.
The club as an active agent of local sports policy.
CB Grup Barna does not wait for institutions to define policy. It proposes, negotiates and implements. In recent years, the club has established formal alliances with the Sant Martí District and Barcelona City Council for the promotion of women's sport, becoming a leading interlocutor in shaping local sports policy.
The Barna model has been formally presented to the Sports Department of the Government of Catalonia and to the Barcelona Mayor's Office team, with the Unified Report on women's basketball in Barcelona serving as the base document for the 2026-2030 Plan.
KM0 sponsors: when the local economy funds the women's future.
One of CB Grup Barna's most significant innovations in recent years is the KM0 sponsors programme: a funding model in which local businesswomen invest directly in the club's women's teams. It is not philanthropy — it is a strategic bet and a demonstration that the local economy can play an active role in building a more equitable sport.
The circle is virtuous: neighbourhood businesswomen who believe in gender equality fund sporting opportunities for the neighbourhood's girls. When the women who lead the local economy decide to invest in local women's sport, the message is powerful: women's basketball has value. It has value for the community, for business and for the future.
The club has produced videos featuring testimonials from its sponsoring businesswomen, giving voice to the reasons why they decided to link their brand to CB Grup Barna and women's basketball. These videos have had a strong impact on the club's social media and have generated a pull effect for other potential sponsors.
When the neighbourhood's women invest in the neighbourhood's girls, the circle of equality closes. CB Grup Barna created this model. And it works.
Official partner in the legal field. Joins CB Grup Barna to boost women's basketball and reinforce its commitment to equality and inclusion in the El Clot neighbourhood.
Official partner in the health field. Based in the area, it joins the Barna family to boost basketball in El Clot and reinforce its commitment to health and sport.
The programme continues to open spaces for new local businesswomen who want to link their brand to CB Grup Barna's values and fund the club's women's teams.
The work recognised: Mayor's Office, Federation, City Council and more.
CB Grup Barna's work does not go unnoticed. In recent years, the club has received recognition from some of the most relevant institutional actors in Barcelona's sporting and political life.
The city's chief official has visited CB Grup Barna, recognising its role as a benchmark for sport, inclusion and equality in the Sant Martí district. A visit that expresses the city's institutional support for the club's model. See →
At the club's Team Presentation, the Vice-President of the Catalan Basketball Federation publicly recognised CB Grup Barna's model, highlighting its contribution to Catalan women's basketball.
Barcelona's Sports Councillor opened one of the club's events and has held working meetings with its board, reaffirming the council's commitment to CB Grup Barna's gender-balanced model. See →
The club has held high-level meetings with the Sports Minister of the Government of Catalonia, Berni Álvarez, to deepen strategic alliances in women's sport and to position CB Grup Barna as a benchmark in sports policy. See →
CB Grup Barna was already nominated in previous editions in the Sports Club category, consolidating its recognition as a benchmark for women's sport in the city of Barcelona.
Signing of the Eix Clot and Eix Sant Martí pacts for the promotion of women's sport, positioning the club as an active agent of local sports policy and a district benchmark.
Why CB Grup Barna deserves the City Sports Club Award.
Because it is not a club that created an equality programme to win an award. It is a club that has built, over sixty-one years, a culture, a methodology and structures that make equality its way of being.
Because the 200 girls who play on CB Grup Barna's teams deserve nothing less than the recognition of their city. Because El Clot is Barcelona, and Barcelona should celebrate what El Clot makes possible.
Because the Barna Method is replicable. Recognising it is an incentive for other clubs in the region to adopt it. The award is not the goal — it is the catalyst for the systemic change Barcelona needs to become the women's basketball capital of Europe.
The research underpinning the Barna Method and the candidacy.
This candidacy is not based on intuition or rhetoric. Every claim about the gender gap in sport, about talent conversion rates, about sponsorship models and about community impact rests on academic research and verifiable data. Below are the main sources that have built the theoretical and empirical framework of the Barna Method.
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- Swoopes, S., & MacMullan, J. (2004). Bounce Back. ESPN Books. [Biographical reference — T5]
- CB Grup Barna. (2026). Unified Report: Women's Basketball in Barcelona and Catalonia. Diagnosis, gender gap and proposals 2026–2030. Internal document presented to the Catalan Government's Sports Department, February 2026. → Read
- CB Grup Barna. (2026). Full Report: Analysis of basketball in Barcelona 2024–2026. Internal research document. → Read
- CB Grup Barna. (2026). Macro-to-Micro Research: From global basketball to El Clot. NBA/WNBA–Catalonia comparison. → Read
- CB Grup Barna — López, A. (2025). Hidden Patterns: Doctoral research (Cum Laude, UB-INEFC). Analysis of the structural barriers in Catalan women's basketball. → Read
- CB Grup Barna. (2026). 8M Dossier · Barna Fund: Female coach training programme. → Read
- Catalan Basketball Federation. (2025). Statistical Yearbook of Catalan Basketball 2024–25. FCBQ. Licence, team and category data by gender.
- Barcelona Sports Institute. (2025). Strategic Sports Plan for Barcelona 2025–2030. Barcelona City Council.
- Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. (2024). Anuario de Estadísticas Deportivas 2024. Government of Spain. Federated licence data by gender and sport modality.
- UN Women. (2020). Sport for Generation Equality: Towards Gender-Transformative Sport. UN Women.
- UEFA. (2022). Women's Football: Time for Action. UEFA Women's Football Report. UEFA. Data on women's participation in Europe.
- Women's Sports Foundation. (2023). Her Life Depends On It IV: Sport, Physical Activity, and the Health and Well-Being of American Girls and Women. Women's Sports Foundation.
The future is gender-balanced.
And it already exists.
sixty-one years of basketball. Two hundred girls playing. One single model that works. In El Clot, in the heart of Barcelona.
CB Grup Barna · XIX Women and Sport Award · Barcelona 2026 · marqueting@cbgrupbarna.info · 698 42 51 53