In 2011 it’s quite usual to see a load of women turning up at a football match and being every bit as fanatical and knowledgeable as the men at the match, but this is a comparatively recent development. Just a couple of decades ago, female fans were still a small part of the crowd at matches and even then it seemed that a lot of them were just dragging along their man hoping that he would repay her by going shopping with her the next weekend.
I got into football as a child, due to the enthusiasm of my neighbour – a teenage boy whose passion for, and knowledge of, both football and cricket was amazing. It was down to him that I started to watch football on television (that long ago, this comprised only Match Of The Day late on Saturday night and the F.A. Cup Final every year). Even this small amount of viewing disturbed my parents, who considered it strange for a girl to want to watch sport, but I was a strong-willed individual and my interest in the sport and my understanding of it grew in leaps and bounds.
By the time I reached my teens, this was a full-blown obsession. Pop singers, actors…the other girls could have them – my heroes were footballers. Even today I can recall waiting in a queue by the school hall, ready to take my German exam, and despite the fact that all the other girls were still quickly looking through the language course book, I was randomly flicking through a copy of football magazine. (I failed the exam!)
Once I had left school and was earning my own money, I wanted to go and enjoy some football live. My parents were horrified at the very thought, so I recruited a family friend and his son, who was a couple of years younger than me, to be my chaperones. We went to various matches around our area, including most of the London clubs and clubs like Brighton (a top level club in those days). At one time, my dad clearly decided that he should make an effort to try to build more of a bond with his daughter and accompanied us on a visit to Chelsea. My lasting memory of the afternoon was being embarrassed about the bad language from the people around us that he was having to be subjected to, and I never invited him on our football trips again!
Once I had left home and transferred to a new place with my job, I quickly got to know a number of guys who were all football fanatics. When the World Cup was on television, four of us took it in turns to have a crowd round to our houses to watch all the relevant matches. I can recall viewing a World Cup Final perched halfway up an open plan staircase as one of my mates had invited so many people into his tiny terraced house that it was practically standing room only! With the state of my eyes nowadays, I’d most likely require binoculars or Laser eye surgery just to be able to focus on the screen now!
So, there was a basic car full of five of us, and since this was back in the days when there were usually matches on a Wednesday evening, we regularly went to a midweek match straight from work. Residing in the south eastern corner of England gave us a wide choice of clubs to visit, from the First Division (as the top division was called before the days of Sky’s money) through to a decent standard of non-league teams. It was very therapeutic to arrive at the middle of the working week in a not very pleasant job and then head to the match and vent pent-up worries or frustrations by shouting at the referee and supporting the players. (I notice football chants have never developed from asking if the ref needs glasses? In this decade, with such vast sums of money and sponsorship involved, surelysupporters should be asking if he needs Laser eye surgery? To be honest, I’m amazed that the powers that be haven’t already signed up a sponsor who will give Laser eye treatment as part of the deal!)
As time passed, the members of our little gang changed to other employment in other locations and the football trips died out, although I occasionally tagged along to watch a local team with another acquaintance who mostly went on his own, and who was happy to have company every now and then. Even that arrangement came to a halt when he moved out of the area, and I went back to watching football on the TV just like I had in the first place. But somehow the over commercialisation and constant saturation programmes on satellite television, as well as the blunt refusal to make use of Laser eye or similar technology to assist decision making, sadly made me come to loathe the game. I totally lost interest in it.
That is, until recently. My closest female friend has always disliked football, and having had me tell her numerous times that it is completely different live to what is shown on television, she finally said that she would like to attend a match with me. I let her decide what team she wanted to follow, as she had two nearby league sides to choose from and then I booked the tickets. Knowing that she had no knowledge of the rules, I quietly outlined the referee’s decisions for her and showed her things that she might have missed. By full time, she was really enthusiastic to watch another game. And, when time and money permit, we’ve been turning up ever since!