by Ava-Marianne Elliott and Hannah Chadwick (20/12/23).
Above: Fans holding signs showing support for the Canadian squad during their fight for equal pay. Photo: Her Football Hub.
As 2023 draws to a close, there’s a lot to review looking back at the monumental achievements and events for women’s football across the globe. From the record-breaking World Cup in Australia and New Zealand to the various leagues around the world, this year has seen a huge rise on all fronts for women’s football.
With more teams bringing in new fans to fill seats, more people watching from their homes, and stadiums selling out, there is a cost that comes with the positives of the increase. We’ve seen more backlash towards players on social media, hate directed in their direction, and more entitled behaviour coming from a percentage of the fans that have instilled elements into the stands that have been viewed in different ways. The expectation that is being placed on players is increasing, and they simply can’t keep up with the demand.
From the increasing controversy around fan-made signs to online hate directed towards individual players for not having the time to stop for every awaiting fan in the crowd, there seems to be a growing belief that players owe them something on a personal level.
Expectations
Recently, it appears that a lot of fans, including parents who have taken young children to games, have unreasonable expectations for the match, particularly for how they expect the players to act. When purchasing a ticket to any fixture, the information clearly outlines that the price you pay is solely to view the match from your chosen seat or stand. In no way, does a match day ticket entitle a fan to a meet and greet like some appear to expect, so why are we seeing so many people treat it as such?
Personally, I think it does tie in with the fact that women’s footballers have been known for their generosity and consideration in acknowledging their fans post-match, rather than heading straight back down the tunnel. Now with the attendances rising and thousands upon thousands pouring into stadiums to spectate, players simply cannot get around to everybody, nor should they feel obliged to due to public shame on social media. It’s disappointing that this topic is something that regularly has to be brought to attention, and that clubs are starting to have to take measures to protect their players.
Football is the players’ career, their job, and their livelihood. Making the time and effort to talk to fans and even occasionally offering their shirt or boots to them, is not something that they have to do.
An occurrence that reflected how entitled some fans are was an incident that happened at the recent Manchester derby fixture. The parent of a young boy took to Twitter to express his outrage that his child’s “childhood crush”, Chloe Kelly, did not stop to say hello to the young Manchester United fan in the home section. What he did not even stop to consider, was that his child was reaching over the barrier there for player safety to grab at the City team as they passed. He included the video of the incident in his tweet, even shaming the team they were there to ‘support’ – “even all the Manchester United women ignored all the kids too. Pretty disappointing, don’t forget where you came from.”
Meeting any player is a privilege, and definitely not something that you are automatically owed for turning up to support a team. It’s entirely a parent’s responsibility to teach their child that they aren’t entitled or guaranteed to meet a player.
The generosity of the players has been taken for granted by entitled fans. Fans’ demands are putting players under pressure. Fans do not have a reason to expect so much from the players. They have played over 90 minutes of football. How is this fair on the players?
The demand of the fans have increased as they are no longer asking for photos or signatures they are now asking for shirts and boots. Players will no longer be able to keep up with the expectations and they shouldn’t have the expectations that fans have put on them.
Expectations in the men’s game
The expectations from the men’s game differ greatly from the pressure and demand on female athletes. Women’s football culture has grown significantly in recent years, and whilst it’s a huge positive to take away, there are also components we have to criticise when it comes to the biased expectations that vary between the two groups.
One of the biggest differences is men’s football fans have far lower expectations for the players post match.
It does all link back to the massive generosity of female players and how they view their crowd support, which years ago they did not have for fixtures regularly. The attendances may be growing, but often, crowds are still relatively small in comparison to the consistently sold-out matches within the men’s game. I think that despite all of the factors that make women’s football so great, from supporter’s clubs to the community as a whole, it has to be noted that these women are still professional athletes who are just trying to sustain their career.
At the end of a men’s game you see two things, the players walking around the pitch applauding the fans and the fans applauding the players. This is a polar opposite to what we see at the end of a women’s game with fans pushing themselves to the front before the final whistle has been blown.
In recent games, it has been said that fans are starting to come to the front around the 75-minute mark. It is the same sport. It is still football. In the men’s game fans sit at least 10 metres away from the pitch and surrounded by security people. Is this a step that needs to happen to protect the players in the women’s game?
Fan-made signs
Fan-made signs are a very broad and complex part of women’s football that has carried across from football culture within the men’s game. It’s not uncommon now to see a photo on social media of adults and children alike with glittery, bright signs hoisted high above their heads hoping to catch the eye of their favourite player. The content on signs truly does range, and it’s hard to be concise about whether they are a positive or a negative.
Signs have been used in such impactful ways, in terms of protesting against the controversies in the sport – such as showing support for Jennifer Hermoso after the World Cup Final, but we more commonly do see them in use to ask for players belongings. Whilst, understandably, receiving a boot or a shirt from your favourite squad member is a dream for many fans, they in no way are obliged to hand over personal possessions.
Whilst there are always negatives to take away, some signs, typically ones we’ve seen on smaller boards around the A4 size, have been humorous and could potentially be what lifts a player up post-match. Any sign displaying support cannot be defined as a message that has negative connotations, however regardless of how impactful the sign’s message may be you have to consider those around you and how what you perceive to be harmless could affect others in the stands.
With women’s football on the rise, it is becoming more and more common to see fans of all ages holding cardboard signs above their heads since the start of this ‘trend’ for signs that has slowly migrated over from men’s football. At the start of the migration, fans wrote messages supporting the team but the supportive messages relating to the whole team slowly faded out to make way for signs related to specific players which slowly developed into messaging stating the likes of ‘Can I have your shirt?’ or ‘Can I have your boots?’
These signs are classified as begging signs. Although signs that are held with supportive messages on them are ‘okay’ to hold, they do obstruct the view of people in the rows behind which can cause arguments to break out and lead to the potential of fans being removed from stadiums.
Fans holding signs that have messages written on them that are classified as ‘begging’ can cause problems for all parties involved including fans, players, and security staff. The main negative effect of signs is the backlash that players receive if they don’t give their shirt, or boots or even get a picture of a fan. This then causes the players to go through a period of abuse on social media which they do not deserve just because they didn’t meet a fan.
End-of-match behaviour
Recently, there has been a big increase in the amount of fans rushing to pitch barriers long before the whistle has even been blown, usually around ten minutes before, not including any extra time added. One of the main complaints from others, especially from fans that sit in the lower tier, are mostly regarding the fact that the view from the seat they paid for becomes blocked when crowds stand at the barriers. It hinders other’s ability to enjoy and watch the game. It truly is conveying a certain level of disrespect to the others around them.
Although it is perhaps exciting to think that you could potentially be granted the opportunity to meet a player you idolise, it doesn’t entitle you to ruin another person’s experience. It does also imply that perhaps this small (but increasing) percentage of fans are in attendance for motives other than simply expressing their support and enjoying a game of football. When the whistle has blown, the fixture is over and fans begin to pile out of stadiums, it’s slightly more appropriate to stand at the barrier – however, the safety of players still has to be taken into consideration.
For the players, it must be like being in an animal in a zoo with fans pressed against the railings with fans doing everything they can to gain their attention. There have also been occasions where fans have followed players to their cars after games and chasing after them as they drive away. The safety of the players and staff around the grounds should be taken into account.
Response of clubs, national teams and players
One of the responses that we’ve seen so far had come from the FA regarding the England women’s team, who were met with blatant abuse online from fans fresh off the back of their World Cup tournament. With heartbreak from their failure to find gold and likely exhaustion from months of preparation, training, and matches, nevermind a 24-hour flight back from Sydney, the Lionesses were truly villainised by fans for ‘ignoring’ them upon the touchdown of their arrival back in England at Heathrow Airport.
Groups of fans gathered early on a Tuesday morning, but the Lionesses left the airport through a private exit rather than through a public space. The FA reiterated that neither the men’s nor women’s national teams will go through arrivals after a major tournament, as it’s a matter of security for the squad members. Fans don’t appear to take into consideration these factors, being so blinded by their lack of understanding courtesy of their own emotional investment into meeting players.
Georgia Stanway has been one of the voices amongst the players who have spoken up about just how difficult it can be to interact with as many fans as possible when they get the opportunity. She discussed publicly that “the FA have got a job to look after us and after that flight, they probably just wanted to get us out of the back door and get our heads down as quickly as possible.
The first club to protect the players was Manchester City who have created a ‘fan zone’ where a selected number of fans each home game gets to meet the players. However, this does not help with the abuse that players get at away games if they do not meet all the fans that have travelled. I believe that other clubs need to follow to keep the players and fans safe. England players recently composed a message to be placed on the large screens around the stadium saying the players will not be meeting fans.
Mary Earps has recently responded to the abuse on social media that she has been receiving on social media after she didn’t stop and meet a fan. In her words, she said “It’s something that we as players are experiencing in a very different way with the profile of the game changing. We love to interact with the fans. but it’s at times becoming really difficult to keep everybody happy and to interact with as many people as possible.”
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