{"id":820403,"date":"2026-07-24T07:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820403\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T07:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T07:44:09","slug":"being-a-womens-football-fan-whats-working-and-whats-missing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/820403\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a women’s football fan: What’s working and what’s missing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest complaint from fans is scheduling.<\/p>\n

In 2025-26, the WSL replaced the Sunday 18:45 kick-off time with more noon matches, but this also proved unpopular.<\/p>\n

“For an away day it’s horrible,” explains Arsenal fan Major. “You’ve got fans leaving at three o’clock in the morning or you’re going the night before and having to pay for a hotel.”<\/p>\n

The revised time also clashes with grassroots football, played widely on a Sunday morning. It is a barrier for the younger generation to attend games.<\/p>\n

Regular breaks throughout the season are an issue too. Earlier this year, former England defender Anita Asante suggested extended gaps between league games<\/a> hampers momentum and rhythm for fans.<\/p>\n

Another complaint from supporters is accessibility.<\/p>\n

While Premier League-level grounds like Emirates Stadium and Everton’s Goodison Park are well equipped, smaller venues are less accommodating.<\/p>\n

Jones, a wheelchair user, was frustrated by the lack of Blue Badge parking information when trying to attend London City’s away trip to Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the issues I experience are with communication,” she says. “Every club has an accessibility section on their website but for Tottenham it is only for the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, not Brisbane Road [where Tottenham women play].”<\/p>\n

Jones told BBC Sport the onus was on her to seek further information via email, to which she received a reply stating Blue Badge parking had sold out. Only after she spoke to Tottenham’s disability co-ordinator did she learn the venue did not have Blue Badge parking as it was in a residential area.<\/p>\n

To compound matters, the wheelchair accessible allocation was on the opposite side of the ground to the away section, leaving Jones isolated.<\/p>\n

Tottenham Hotspur told BBC Sport information for the venue is available on the website via the ‘Ask Spurs’ chatbot. However, after an internal investigation, they are making improvements.<\/p>\n

Brisbane Road-specific guidance has since been added to their event day accessible parking section on ‘Ask Spurs’, while a matchday-specific guide is in the works.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the club confirmed: “We’re working on a full Brisbane Road matchday guide for the website for next season to give parity with our Tottenham Hotspur Stadium information.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest complaint from fans is scheduling. In 2025-26, the WSL replaced the Sunday 18:45 kick-off time with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-820403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820403","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=820403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}