adminSARAH Aitchison has been watching football for more than 20 years and recalls times she has felt “violated, intimidated and frightened”.
There was the time, 15 years ago, when she worked as a hostess at a club where one man “put his hand on my behind” and another said “isn’t she lovely, do you want to take her home with you?”
There are more recent examples where she has been objectified by a “group of men chanting about what they want to do to your body” or being “belittled” when she tried to stick up for a female steward who was verbally abused and received no support from her male colleagues.
And then there are the general “sexist comments” as if she doesn’t know anything about football or doesn’t have an equal place at games.
None of this will come as a surprise to women who attend football matches. Historically, stories like this have not always been reported or perhaps even taken seriously.
That is slowly changing, however, and many will say, it is long overdue.
In August, Everton issued a “lengthy stadium ban” to a supporter for sexually assaulting a female fan during a match a Goodison Park. It was a rare occasion where a club publicly took action.
Roopa Vyas, who is on the board for female fans group Her Game Too – set up last year to tackle sexism in sport – says Everton set a “good example” and are one of 62 professional clubs who are partnered with the organisation.
“A lot of clubs will look into things but then may not respond or take the action that people expect, like banning a fan,” she tells BBC Sport. “I think it’s moving in the right direction. Everton’s approach was great, but I want to see that consistently.”
Over the last year, Her Game Too has received more than 80 reports of sexual harassment or abuse at football matches.
There are no publicly available figures specifically of sexual assault or sexual harassment in the official Home Office data for the 2,198 football-related arrests by police at matches in England and Wales last season. There were 798 arrests for public disorder and 19 arrests for racist or indecent chanting.
Anti-discrimination campaign group Kick it Out received eight reports of incidents based on gender in the professional game for the 2021-22 season. That compares to 183 for race-related incidents and 108 based on sexual orientation.
Roopa, who is a Her Game Too ambassador for Liverpool, says the numbers will be higher, but cites several reasons that women do not come forward, including inadequate reporting systems and sexism not always being recognised alongside other types of discrimination.
Sarah also highlights how hard it is tackling a football culture which “has misogyny ingrained deeply into it”.
“There’s a particular chant where it talks about how wonderful the town or city is, because it’s full of female body parts,” she says. “To a lot of men, that would just seem like a harmless bit of banter.
“But actually, when you’re a woman and you hear a lot of men chanting something that basically reduces you to a list of sexualized body parts, it feels quite intimidating.”
Roopa says it is “difficult” to know if sexual abuse at football is on the increase or because women are starting to feel more comfortable about reporting it. But she says Her Game Too, which is set to undergo a restructure
next year, has been told about a “huge spectrum” of incidents.
“Derogatory comments are the main ones that come up,” she says. “Fans feeling uncomfortable or even just being in a stadium and hearing the singing. Women are often told they shouldn’t be at the football, in particular at away games, and then you get extremes of sexual assault.
“I know I’ve been in situations where a few years ago, I wouldn’t even think to tell anyone. But now I guess, with organisations like ours, and with clubs taking them more seriously and actually banning people or doing education programmes, it shows this behaviour is not acceptable.” — BBC Sport.
Online Reporter