![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Z93_0677_265C1pKG.jpg\")
Arsenal Women on the community visit at the Community Hub at Emirates Stadium. Image: David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\nArsenal Women on the community visit at the Community Hub at Emirates Stadium. Image: David Price\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Arsenal\u2019s<\/a> women\u2019s team grew out of this same grassroots work. In the 1980s, the club began running football sessions for girls at a time when structured opportunities were rare.<\/p>\n The women\u2019s game has come a long way from these early days: a record 16.2 million people watched the Lionesses win the Euros in July, while participation among women and girls rose by more than 50% between 2020 and 2024.<\/p>\n But grassroots sessions remain essential for the game, Fox told Big Issue.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, football is a place of neutrality and openness, and it should be a welcoming environment,\u201d Fox told Big Issue. \u201cI feel lucky that it always has been for me. And so I think being now a player at Arsenal, how can we, and how can the team, encourage girls to be able to pick whatever direction they want to go to and feel confident and find themselves as they go through.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent progress follows decades of exclusion. Women\u2019s football <\/a>was banned by the FA for 51 years from 1921, and even once the ban was lifted, the game struggled for recognition and resources. Arsenal did not begin paying women players until 2002, and then only through a \u00a3100 win bonus rather than a salary.<\/p>\n In the United States, where Fox is from, the women\u2019s game has been popular for longer.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n \u201cI did feel like I could go into soccer, as you call it back there, and be myself,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t think I encountered as much sexism as I have seen here in terms of how people stereotype footballers and what that could mean.\u201d<\/p>\n Those stereotypes continue to shape the women\u2019s game.<\/a> Players regularly face online abuse and dismissive coverage, particularly around major tournaments. Before Euro 2025, a Kick It Out poll of 2,000 British adults found that more than half believe online sexism is putting girls off engaging with football. Research<\/a> from the Tackling Online Hate in Football project also found that the use of feminine slurs increased by 584% during major women\u2019s tournaments between 2013 and 2022.<\/p>\n Fox questioned the motivations of sexist critics. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat does women\u2019s football not give to you?\u201d she said, when asked how she would respond to critics.<\/p>\n \u201cNegativity is contagious, and there\u2019s so many positive things. And I think with women\u2019s football, it\u2019s a safe place, and there\u2019s so much good that comes out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n For Fatmata Koroma, that \u2018good\u2019 is close to home. Koroma is a community development coach with Arsenal<\/a>, supporting primary school children during football sessions. The mum-of-five also works night shifts in an NHS maternity ward alongside her coaching role.<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Her seven-year-old daughter started playing football around two months ago.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s loving it,\u201d Koroma said. \u201cShe goes, \u2018Mummy, I want to be a footballer.\u2019 I\u2019m like, yes, you can be a footballer. Why not? Of course, hard work, but we can get there.\u201d<\/p>\n Her daughter now begs to come along to sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I go, \u2018Oh today we met with\u2026\u2019 She\u2019ll be like, \u2018That\u2019s not fair!\u2019 Oh, mummy, that\u2019s not fair. You get to have all the fun.\u201d<\/p>\n As the professional players leave the session, the girls continue the kick-a-bout. Statistically, it\u2019s unlikely that many of them will become professionals \u2013 but that\u2019s not what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going through some things, like outside of football or soccer, like you\u2019re able to kind of relax and be free,\u201d Fox says. \u201cThat\u2019s how that\u2019s how I always feel when I\u2019m playing it.\u201d<\/p>\n Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Change a vendor\u2019s life this Christmas.<\/p>\n Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 or support online with a\u00a0vendor support kit<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0subscription<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and help people work their way out of poverty with dignity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal Women on the community visit at the Community Hub at Emirates Stadium. Image: David Price\/Arsenal FC via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,122543,55536,588,85,12632,46069],"class_list":["post-368207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-sexism","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-women","tag-womens-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DSC_6961_QRr5Ux4m.jpg\")
The team met with children and young people at the Arsenal Community Hub. Image: Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images<\/p>\n