The 2023 Women’s Football World Cup: A Driver of Sporting and Social Change? A Comparative Analysis of the Spanish, French, and Mexican Press
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.20868/mhd.2026.32.5676Keywords:
mediatization, women’s football, Spain, France, Mexico, scandalizationAbstract
This article examines the Rubiales case as a process of mediated scandalization within the context of women’s football, adopting a comparative perspective across Spain, France, and Mexico. Drawing on a theoretical framework that combines scholarship on scandal, mediatization, and discourse analysis, the study explores, first, the media construction of the case, focusing on processes of visibility, denunciation, and symbolic contestation that shape the event as a public issue; and second, its impacts and repercussions at institutional, media, and social levels. The analysis relies on a corpus including general and sports press, institutional documents, and audiovisual productions, enabling the identification of transnational circulation of narratives and interpretative frames. Findings reveal significant cross-national differences in media treatment, as well as uneven capacities of the scandal to produce lasting transformations. The article contributes to the literature by advancing a comparative and process-oriented approach to sports scandals, highlighting their role as catalysts— though not necessarily guarantors— of structural change.
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