You might not think it but women and football go way back. According to press reports from 1898 two groups of women were involved in a violent clash over a football match. Last year Dr Matt McDowell from the University of Edinburgh found press cuttings from the 19th century that appear to contain the first reported incidents of football violence between two sets of women football fans! The Morton supporters (now known as Greenock Morton) and the now defunct Port Glasgow Athletic. The incident left one woman requiring medical attention.
The fight was reported in the Port Glasgow Express and Observer: “They appeared last night in swarms on Princes Street. Shouts of ‘Good old Port; dirty Morton,’ and ‘Dirty Port; Good old Morton,’ were heard all over the place. The Morton contingent proceeded down the Greenock Road, and a conflict ensued about William Street. There was a general scuffle among the girls and stones were thrown. One girl was so badly hit on the eye that she had to be taken into the surgery of a doctor at hand."
Dr McDowell commented on the findings that: “Women were definitely a part of the real and rhetorical universe of these footballers, despite our necessity to take some of these accounts with a grain of salt.”
As for women in the stands, the press often seemed unsure as to how to react to them. “The terraces were often very reactionary places, and some papers often drew pretty pictures of the scenes where women attended football matches in fashionable clothes."
We aren't planning on any football hooliganism on Saturday 26th April but we will be carrying on the tradition of women in football at our special event No Balls Please! with the help of fellow football fans and experts in the run up to the World Cup.
The hilarious Rachel Fairburn, Manchester City fan and finalist in the 2008 Funny Women Awards will be playing host to player (a Funny Women Player that is) and Newcastle fan Emma Stroud, who shared with us: "Football is a passion of mine, a love and a joy. I get all of that at the start of the season when my team could conceivably win something."
Rachel promises that "It's going to be slicker than Pep Guardiola, sharper than Jose Mourinho's tongue and as hilarious as Manchester United's recent performance."
As well as fans we have some real experts in the beautiful game. Janie Frampton started out as a football player but she has now has been a football referee for 23 years – in fact, Janie was the second woman to operate within men's professional football! Janie tells us that "The fun of football knows no gender."
Plus we have expertise in the form of Jo Tongue, from Somethin' Else Productions. Jo works with some top names and has some great insights to share. "I fell in love with football in the 80s when I was sucked into the glamour of Spurs by the likes of Ray Clemence, Ossie Ardiles and Glenn Hoddle," she says. "Since then I’ve endured Gary Doherty, Justin Edinburgh and Grzegorz Rasiak. All for the bargain price of a grand a season. Mugged. And yet I seem incapable of stopping the direct debit. We’ll call it an addiction. One I’ve tried to hide by simply making a career of it."
As well as the banter there will plenty of comedy to entertain. 2014 Funny Women Variety Award winners Revan and Fennell will be there with their unique take on the football fan stereotype and, dishing out the dirt on 'him indoors' and crowd control, is our very own favourite pub landlady, Dolly Slatemen.
As if that isn't enough to get everybody talking balls, we also have ventriloquist act Gottla Geer, burqa-wearing football fans and best of mates. With Gottla the more human of the two and Geer the more vocal, the pair highlight the fact that it's difficult to ascertain allegiances even among friends. When asked of her expectations of a Leicester Square Theatre crowd this Saturday night, Geer said, "Being smack bang in the middle of London, I should imagine it'll be full of Manchester United fans, which – given the current climate – means they'll have low expectations, so that takes a bit of the pressure off me to perform. Should be a decent night, yeah."
Join us for a what is sure to be a very 'decent' evening – a bit like Loose Women mashed up with Question of Sport!
For more information click HERE!
Pictured top to bottom: Rachel Fairburn, Revan & Fennell.
