aSix days after a former player was held accountable in court for making sexist comments and a current manager was prosecuted by the Football Association for using sexist language, will we see a change in the way the behavior is tackled?
For years, so-called “joke” stories have been used to silence complaints and have struggled to convince players that sexism and misogyny even exist in the sport, but there are signs that the world is finally waking up.
Last week, Joey Barton was sentenced criminally for harmful social media posts targeting critics Lucy Ward and Eni Aluko. Aluko was also the target of racist posts.
Days earlier, Barnet’s Dean Brennan became the first EFL manager to be charged with sexist abuse of a female referee. He denies the charges. This comes after a non-league incident in the past two months in which Hemel Hempstead Town were fined for mistreating a female referee and a match at Coventry Sphinx was canceled.
This kind of abuse is despicable and not new, but the consequences are visible. This starts to send a message that this behavior will no longer be tolerated. This is very important in the context of the Kick Sexism Out campaign that we at Kick It Out launched at the beginning of last season.
A study we commissioned found that 85% of female fans who experienced sexism in football did not report it. I felt like they wouldn’t do anything for me or take me seriously, which is understandable.
But as we saw last month, more visible positive outcomes could help break the cycle and perhaps encourage more women to report sexism when they witness it.
This season, thanks to our new reporting relationship with Her Game Too, we received 86 reports of sexism. This is almost four times as many as at this stage last year, including a record 19 for the most times accompanied by mass chants, and comes after setting professional, grassroots and online reporting records in each of the past three seasons.
It may seem strange to say that the increase in reports of sexism is a positive thing, but we know it’s happening, and now more people are starting to actively try to denounce it. We can use that to encourage further consequences, such as clubs being accused of sexist chants.
We see this as a recognition that women have had enough and want change. The reason is staring at us. Sexism has become one of the fastest growing forms of abuse in football, with female fans, referees, officials, physiotherapists and club staff regularly targeted.
Chants reported to us included “Get your tits out for the lads” and “She has chlamydia.” Fans commented, “Go back to the kitchen, you filth.” Once on the scene, officials faced a barrage of obscene and abusive language.
It’s a consistent story about women being told they’re not fit for football. This begs the question: Where exactly does soccer want women to appear?
This action has reached the grassroots as well. I manage a women’s academy team and play in a men’s league. We are the only women’s team in the league and I am the only woman manager. Most teams are afraid of losing to the girls and are desperate to beat us, but in my opinion the sad insecurity lies more with the male managers than with the boys on the pitch.
While playing against a team recently, the girls were constantly faced with sexist remarks from spectators about how they weren’t “man enough” to play against the boys, and cries of “If you can’t act like a man, don’t play against the boys.” All kinds of comments were yelled at me and the 12- and 13-year-old players by two adult men just because we were there. One of them said she had a daughter when I tried. So how can he be sexist? Naturally, I didn’t let it go.
Behavior in a soccer environment can feel unique to the sport. People often seem entitled and courageous to say whatever they want to whomever they want without fear of consequences. That’s the part we really have to change.
So seeing more people speak up for it and take on more responsibility gives us more hope. There is a long way to go and the number of reports will continue to increase, but momentum is growing and everyone can do their part to combat sexism and misogyny.
Holly Varney is the chief operating officer of football anti-discrimination group Kick It Out.
