‘He was pressing up against me’: The sexist abuse female football fans suffer at games

1:43pm

Abigail Rudkin was standing in the crowd at a Liverpool game when a male supporter grabbed her arm and forced himself behind her. Her dad was in another stand. She felt alone and vulnerable. “This male stranger was on top of me, he was pressing up against me, breathing by my neck. It was horrible.”

“People were looking at me and looking at him and all I could think was why did no one just turn around and say ‘give that girl some space’," Abigail, 23, says. “ I had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. This wasn't someone doing this by accident, he was doing it on purpose.”

Abigail reported the incident to Her Game Too but is understandably annoyed about the frequency in which men make women feel uncomfortable at games. “If I’m on my own, lads will grab my waist to get past," she says. “They will go past all the lads and not touch them, but then they go by a woman and feel like they’ve got to move past and touch your waist. If I’m with my Dad, though, it never happens.” 

Kick it Out reported a 400% increase in sexism and misogyny across all levels of football last year. This is after Her Game Too revealed in 2021, out of 370 respondents, 216 had experienced sexist abuse at a football ground or in a pub.

Founder of Sheffield Wednesday Women’s Supporters Group, Emma Partridge, attended her first game in 2004 with her friend's Dad, but it was only after she developed an online presence that she became victim to sexist abuse at football games.

“I’ve had direct abuse when I’ve been with friends”, the 28-year-old says. “There was an occasion when I was walking home after a game, when boys on the tram shouted ‘get your tits out!’"

The verbal sexist abuse occurred on the same day Sheffield Wednesday designated their fixture to Her Game Too, something Emma was directly part of. “After the abuse we thought we need to set something up where we, as women, can come together and know that we’re safe and not have to worry about being on our own.”

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As director of the Women’s Supporters Group, Emma hears reports from fellow female fans who have been subject to sexist abuse every few games, and they are more likely to receive a more serious report after an away game. 

A spokesperson for Sheffield Wednesday told SheffieldWire: “If anyone experiences any kind of abuse or discrimination whilst attending football matches at Sheffield Wednesday, they are encouraged to report to stewards/security staff in real time via the club’s ‘Report an Incident’ messaging service.

“All feedback on the day is completely confidential and we can assure every supporter affected by this unacceptable behaviour that the right and proper action will be taken, with anyone found culpable subject to full club sanctions.”

Bournemouth fan, Emma Burke, 42, spoke highly about her Premier League club’s ability to “maintain a wonderful family feel”, but she has still been made to feel uncomfortable at football games on multiple occasions. 

“On one occasion, somebody was stood in front of me and my family and they were shouting negative comments towards the players. When I asked him to please stop, as it was draining the atmosphere, his reaction was to tell me to ‘shut up, I don’t know what I’m talking about’.”

Emma recalls another incident of sexist abuse which took place after some violence broke out in the stand behind where she was sat. Although, the incident was quickly broken up, a female steward was targeted with abuse, “most ending with the word bitch”.

“Although this didn’t directly affect me, when the atmosphere and mood changes in the stands you notice it and feel a bit uncomfortable”, Emma says.

A spokesperson for the Football Association told SheffieldWire: "We are extremely disappointed to hear of the negative experiences that some female fans have had at matches across England. We strongly condemn prejudice of any kind, including sexism and misogyny, and incidents of this nature have no place in football or wider society. We encourage anyone who has been the subject of, or witness to, this behaviour inside a stadium to report it to the relevant authorities and the club concerned.

"Wembley Stadium has a zero-tolerance policy for anti-social and discriminatory conduct, and has introduced an anonymous text message service to ensure fans can report incidents directly to the stadium’s control room to be investigated. Anyone found guilty of this behaviour will be immediately ejected.”