Primera Federación Femenina (Spain) Barcelona B are the 2025-26 champions of the Primera Federación Femenina, the second tier of Spanish women’s football. They sealed the title on 2 May 2026 after a 2-2 draw away to CD Alba Fundación, with Rosalía and Cèlia Segura on the scoresheet — a single point was all the side needed to confirm the trophy.
That should be it: champions, promoted, off to Liga F. Except Barcelona B are not going anywhere. The reserve team will play another season in the second division — and the promotion spot they technically earned will pass to Deportivo Alavés.
How they got there
Barcelona B finished the 26-game regular season with 58 points from 18 wins, four draws and four defeats — two clear of Alavés (56) and twelve ahead of Valencia (46). It was a comfortable rather than dominant title: a tight race for most of the spring, decided in the final weeks as the Blaugrana reserves nudged ahead and held on.
Top scorer Núria Escot finished with 11 goals, ahead of Cèlia Segura and Rosa Domínguez on eight apiece. The Femení B’s strength all season was depth: rotation between U-19 talent and senior loanees, plus the kind of training infrastructure most second-tier clubs cannot match.
Why there will not be two Barcelonas in Liga F
The reason the title does not come with a promotion is a regulation that applies across Spanish football: a reserve team — known as a filial — cannot play in the same division as its parent club, and cannot enter the play-off if a successful play-off would put it there.
The wording from the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF) is unambiguous: “Un filial no puede coincidir en la misma categoría que su primer equipo ni disputar el play-off si el principal milita en la división a la que se ascendería.” If a filial finishes top, the championship is theirs, but the right of promotion passes to the next eligible club in the table.
FC Barcelona Femení won Liga F again this season, sealing their eleventh league title. Two Barcelonas in the same division is not allowed, so Barcelona B stay where they are.
The promotion spot goes to Alavés
With Barcelona B blocked from going up, direct promotion to Liga F passes to second-placed Deportivo Alavés — a return to the top flight after years in the second tier. The play-off for the additional Liga F slot will be contested by the next eligible non-filial sides, with Valencia, finishing third on 46 points, the highest-ranked of them.
The same rule rules out Real Madrid B (4th, 41 points), who finish ahead of CD Tenerife II in the standings but cannot promote either.
Familiar story for the Femení B
This is not new territory for Barcelona’s reserves. The Femení B have now won the second tier six times — 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2024 and 2026 — and on every previous occasion the same regulation kept them in place. The trophy is the reward; the development pathway, not promotion, is the point.
For the senior club, the value of a strong B side is an internal pipeline: this season’s squad will graduate players into Champions League matchday squads, and several have already trained with the first team. For Liga F, an Alavés promotion adds another Basque club to the top flight; for the rest of Primera Federación, the title is honorary but the door above is not closed by it.
What it means
Barcelona B are champions. Alavés go up. Barcelona B will line up in Primera Federación again next season — most likely as favourites once more, and again with no path through the trophy to promotion. It is the system working exactly as designed.
Sources: FC Barcelona — official news, RFEF Primera Federación Femenina, Wikipedia — Fútbol Club Barcelona “B” (femenino).