While the inaugural Women's Football Weekend in the WSL attracted 74,247 attendees this past weekend, Spain's first division was at a standstill. Empty stands and vacated football pitches littered the country as all eight of the Primera Iberdrola women's matches were boycotted by 200 players in the league over a pay dispute. The contrast between the two scenes is stark, but both represent moments of progress in the grand scheme of women's club football.

One shows the game's ability to attract record-breaking crowds beyond international fixtures; the other could go down as the moment the Spanish league's players lay the foundations for their first ever collective bargaining agreement (CBA). In sticking to their guns and going ahead with their planned strike action on Saturday and Sunday, the players spurred a response from their clubs less than a day later, in a pay dispute that has been locked in failed negotiations for 14 months.

On Monday, the Association of Women's Football Clubs (ACFF) finally shifted on the wages disagreement which had been at an impasse for over a year. Among maternity, injury and holiday pay, the players have been haggling tirelessly for part-time salaries in the league to be at least 75 per cent of the full-time minimum wage, which has been set at €16,000. But clubs had long contested that a €12,000 figure was unaffordable, insisting it should be 50 per cent, the equivalent of €8,000. Neither had budged, prompting the boycott. Now, in a major development to proceedings, the players have agreed to suspend their strike after the clubs finally appeared to cede to their request, inspired by the sorry sight of a weekend bereft of domestic football.