In The 21st Century Countless Women Are Dedicated And Knowledgeable Football Fans, But Until Recently That Was Definitely Not The Case

These days it’s normal to see a load of women attending a football match and being absolutely as fanatical and knowledgeable as the males at the match, but this is a comparatively recent development. Even if you go back just twenty years, females were still in a small minority at matches and even then it seemed that most of them were simply tagging along their man optimistic that he would repay her by going shopping with her the next weekend.

I became interested in football whilst still in single figures, due to the influence of my neighbour – a teenage lad whose love of, and knowledge of, both football and cricket was incredible. Because of him I started to watch football on television (that long ago, this meant only Match Of The Day late on Saturday night BBC and the F.A. Cup Final every year). Even this miniscule amount of viewing disturbed my parents, who considered it strange for a girl to want to watch sport, but I was a strong-willed creature and my love of the sport and my understanding of it grew rapidly.

By the time I was in my teens, this was a full-blown addiction. Pop bands, film stars…the other girls could keep them – my heroes were footballers. To this day I can recollect sitting near the school hall, ready to take my Spanish exam, and whilst all the others were still desperately looking through the language course book, I was randomly flicking through a copy of football magazine. (I didn’t pass the exam!)

Once I had finished at school and was earning my own money, I wanted to go out and experience football live. My parents were distressed at the very thought, so I roped in a family friend and his son, who was a few months younger than me, to be my bodyguards. The three of us went to a number of matches in our area, taking in nearly all of the London clubs and places like Brighton (a top division club in those days). At one time, my father clearly decided that he should make an effort and see if he could bond with his daughter and accompanied us on an excursion to Chelsea. My abiding memory of the day was being embarrassed about the swearing from the people around us that my dad was having to be subjected to, and I never took him on our football trips again!

Having left home and transferred to a new place with my job, I quickly got to know several guys who all loved football. When the World Cup started, four of us took it in turns to host a crowd of people in our houses to watch all the relevant matches. I can recollect viewing a World Cup Final perched halfway up an open plan staircase as one of the guys had welcomed so many buddies into his tiny terraced property that it was just about standing room only! With the state of my vision nowadays, I’d most likely want binoculars or Laser eye surgery just to be able to see the screen now!

Anyway, there was a basic gang of five of us, and as this was going back to the days when there were regularly matches on a Wednesday evening, we often attended a midweek match after work. Being in the south eastern part of England gave us a wide choice of clubs to go and see, from the First Division (as the top division was referred to before the days of Sky’s money) through to a decent quality of non-league teams. It was hugely therapeutic to get to the middle of the working week in an unpleasant job and then stand on the terraces and clear out pent-up anxiety or anger by shouting at the referee and applauding the players. (I see football chants have never progressed beyond asking if the ref needs glasses? In this day and age, with such vast sums of money and sponsorship involved, surelythe fans should be asking if he needs Laser eye surgery? In fact, I’m shocked that the authorities haven’t already brought on board a sponsor who will provide Laser eye treatment as part of the contract!)

the years passed, the members of our little football group moved on to other jobs in other locations and the football trips ceased, although I occasionally turned up to watch a local team with another friend who usually went on his own, and who was keen to have company every now and then. Even that arrangement stopped when he moved to the north of England, and I reverted to watching football on the TV just like I had years before. But the over commercialisation and constant saturation broadcasts on satellite television, together with the total refusal to use Laser eye or similar technology to improve decision making, soon made me come to dislike the game. I totally lost interest in it.

That is, until recently. A close female friend has never liked football, and having had me tell her numerous times that it is really different live to what is shown on television, she finally announced that she would like to go to a match with me. I let her decide what team she wanted to support, as she had two local league sides to choose from and then I got the tickets. Realising that she had no knowledge of the rules, I discreetly explained the referee’s decisions for her and pointed out things that she might have missed. By full time, she was really enthusiastic to watch another game. And, on the occasions when time and money permit, we’ve been attending ever since!