• Source: Maria Teresa Andreu

      • Maria Teresa Andreu Grau (21 January 1952), also written as Mª Teresa Andreu, is a Spanish former football goalkeeper and leading women's football executive considered a main pioneer of women's football in Catalonia.


      Football career


      Andreu joined Barcelona in May 1971, when the 1971–72 season's league began, as a reserve goalkeeper. For her team name she was known as Maria Teresa and Marisa. She made a substitute appearance in the team's 5–0 victory over Gramanet on 21 May 1971, but otherwise did not play in the league and was not mentioned among Barcelona's "unbeaten" goalkeepers later in the season.
      By March 1974, at which point Núria Llansà had moved to Espanyol, Andreu was Barcelona's first-choice goalkeeper.
      She stopped playing for the team in 1982.


      Executive career


      According to RTVE, all of Andreu's executive positions were unpaid.


      = FC Barcelona

      =
      By 1977, Andreu was the president of the Barcelona women's team, and spoke well of the working relationship with the staff of FC Barcelona. During the 1982–83 season, Andreu suggested that the team be called Club Femenino/Femení (CF) Barcelona, to be closer to the name of the men's team, with this change made official before the 1983 Copa de la Reina de Fútbol.
      In 2000, she was elected to the board of directors of FC Barcelona. Within the year she had brought Club Femení Barcelona into the Barcelona Foundation's organisational structure, making the women's team part of the club in administration. Andreu then convinced the club to fully integrate the women's team as an official section of the club in 2002.
      Andreu's directorship coincided with the presidency of Joan Gaspart, a bad presidency, with Andreu later reflecting that she often had to step up. She was on the board until 2003, before the start of Joan Laporta's first club presidency. She was later one of the directors in the campaign running against Laporta as he sought his second presidency; Laporta won the election. In response, Andreu said that in 2021 Laporta was calmer and had the strength to lead FC Barcelona through a more difficult economic situation.


      = Spanish Football Federation

      =
      Upon the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) formally recognising women's football in 1980, Andreu was appointed the president of women's football in both the Catalan Football Federation (FCF) and the RFEF. Speaking in 2023, following multiple controversies surrounding how the RFEF treated the Spain women's national football team, Andreu identified a culture shift that began when Ángel María Villar became RFEF president in 1988.
      In 1988, Andreu appointed Ignacio Quereda to be manager of the Spain women's team, with Quereda being the friend and preferred choice of Villar. From the beginning, Andreu noticed that Quereda took more control over organisational matters. After Quereda had been in post for almost a decade with little development, and spurred by poor results in 1997 UEFA Women's Euro qualifying, the players of the Spanish team wrote a letter to Quereda requesting his resignation. Quereda took the letter to Andreu and Villar, the latter of whom was loyal to Quereda. Andreu repeatedly tried to convince Villar to fire Quereda, which he refused to do; Andreu submitted her resignation in 1998 due to the lack of action.


      = Others

      =
      In 1990, she became a member of UEFA's Women's Football Committee, a position she held until 2004.
      She has also been part of the Catalan Women's Olympic Committee and the Women and Sport Commission of the Sports Federation Union of Catalonia (UFEC).


      References

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