AS you may have guessed by now, I’m a woman.
But I am also a woman in a game dominated and largely run by men, where I have spent more than three decades.
Which is why a survey that came out this week left me astonished, angered and alarmed.
It takes quite a bit to ruffle my feathers and I thought I had pretty much seen it all in football, where you definitely need the thickest of thick skins.
And yet this survey revealed a huge increase in sexism at football.
To be exact, anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out received 131 reports of sexist incidents at football matches between the start of the season and the end of February.
That’s more than DOUBLE in the same period last year.
Now I am sure some would argue that 131 reports from hundreds of thousands of fans at games is a dot on the landscape. A mere blip.
But I’m not so sure. For starters, one complaint is one too many. And also, some of the findings were truly startling.
One female fan stopped taking her daughter to men’s matches as she was so appalled at some of the moronic, sexist comments directed at them both.
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Another, Zoe Hitchen, worked as a fully accredited photographer at Football League games but became disillusioned by terrace abuse and — even worse — was actually groped by a club mascot.
What was done about it when she complained? Have a wild stab.
I am not by nature the world’s biggest bra burner, but please, give women a break.
Neanderthals who target women at football grounds up and down the land need to get a life. Plus they must be punished if there is evidence of wrong-doing.
We at West Ham take a very, very dim view of anything that reeks of sexism.
I suspect some of this is society’s problem — misogyny certainly exists in plenty of areas. And I strongly suspect there are still some men who think women shouldn’t have anything to do with men’s football.
Why can’t women watch the men’s game without some knuckle-scraping idiot hurling abuse at them?
Karren Brady
But this is 2026. Women can vote. Women can climb Everest. Women can play football. Women can be the Prime Minister. A woman is even the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Why can’t they watch a men’s game without some knuckle-scraping idiot hurling abuse at them?
Don’t get me wrong, significant strides have been made in the way women compete in high-level sport and also how it is reported.
The Lionesses and our rugby world champions the Red Roses have led the way.
And last weekend three women won a hat-trick of golds in 28 magnificent minutes at the World Indoor Athletics Championships.
Which makes it even more galling that the Kick It Out report has highlighted a similarly acute rise in sexist ‘behaviour’.
So what is being done about it? Two years ago, Kick It Out started a campaign to combat sexism in football and the Football Association has launched a four-year equality, diversity and inclusion strategy.
Those need to lead to tangible results so that in ten, 20 or 30 years women will look back and ask, ‘Can you believe what used to happen in the 2020s?’
And clubs need to punish transgressors — the technology is there — and try to make football as welcoming as it can for all of society, not just the blokes.
