This blog is written by Deborah (Debs) Dilworth, Head of Women's Football, Football Supporters Association (FSA). Photo credit - Deborah Dilworth.
Debs is the Head of Women’s Football at the Football Supporters Association (FSA), meaning she looks after the fan groups and individual fans across the domestic leagues and international fixtures.
The FSA is a not-for-profit organisation and is the national, democratic, representative body for football supporters across England and Wales. We are the leading advocates for supporter ownership, better fan engagement, cheaper ticket prices, the choice to stand at the match, protecting fan rights, good governance, diversity, and all types of supporter empowerment.
After reading this article, we hope it inspires you to get involved in being a more active supporter of the women’s game in whatever way you will best shine.
Despite the consistent downplaying of supporters in women’s football, fans have loved and cherished the women’s game for over 100 years. We saw epic numbers of supporters enjoying the women’s game.
When the ban on women’s football happened in 1921, we often hear about the impact this had on players, but often what this did to supporters is overlooked.
Numbers dwindled understandably, however, there was still supporters for women’s football across the ban and these supporters have continued to champion the game. They have been recently joined by a increase in new fans enjoying the game.
It is with this growing support we need to ensure supporters are at the front and centre of the growth of the game. Supporters are central to the running of clubs, whether that be showing their support vocally, organising away buses or contributing to the running of the club (usually by volunteering huge amount of hours) supporters are essential.
As we have seen the growth of the women’s game happen, we have also seen an increase in women’s game supporter groups and clubs.
The FSA set up a women’s game network in 2019 to try to work on ensuring supporter voices are heard in local and national issues. Since 2019, we have worked on a number of supporter issues including:
- Fixture clashes that mean supporters have to choose between their men’s and women’s teams: https://youtu.be/eVcx1-gcISQ
- Supporter engagement meetings with the FA to talk about national issues for supporters: https://youtu.be/QI03kdMrpps
- And we are also huge advocates for ensuring the women’s game is as inclusive and welcoming as possible and have recently published some guidance to help clubs and supporters groups access funding for local projects at their clubs around promoting diversity. You can see our promotional video of this work here: https://youtu.be/RjzavceDraM
- As well as a copy of the guidance here: FSA-fans_for_diversity_x_womens_game.pdf (thefsa.org.uk)
We have come a long way from having 0 members in the women’s game to just over 50 today but we need more help, more voices and more ideas to ensure that women’s football flourishes both on and off the field.
Please considering joining us via one of the following means –
Social Media
@WearetheFSA – Twitter and Insta
@Freelionesses (Twitter) and @Wearethefreelionesses (Instagram)
Emails
If you want to be kept up to date on the FSA activities by email please join as an individual member today, Join - Football Supporters' Association (thefsa.org.uk). It is Free!
Group membership
If you are interested in setting up or join a local supporters group please contact us for help to do so by emailing
We would encourage you to think about the following questions. Do you want to get involved? If so, how? How can we better represent the voices of young people within our organisation? We look forward to hearing from you!