“If we are serious about tackling violence against women and girls, both online and offline, football cannot be viewed in isolation from society.”
As the world prepares for another major men’s football tournament, attention will once again turn to the players, teams and stories that bring millions of people together through sport. It is also an opportunity to reflect on the sexism, misogyny and online abuse that continue to affect women and girls across the game, and what this tells us about the wider challenge of tackling violence against women and girls. I recently spoke on BBC Morning Live about misogyny in football and the growing recognition that abuse directed at women in football cannot be understood as either an online problem or an offline problem. In reality, it reflects a broader continuum of violence against women and girls that moves between digital and physical spaces, whilst also happening simultaneously in both spaces.
Women and girls experience abuse across every aspect of football. Female supporters report harassment at matches and in fan communities. Women working in football as journalists, broadcasters and content creators are routinely subjected to sexist abuse online. Female players continue to receive disproportionate levels of harassment and threats through social media, particularly during major tournaments and high profile fixtures.
For Black women in football, these experiences are often compounded by misogynoir, the intersection of racism and misogyny. The abuse directed towards Black female players, pundits and commentators frequently combines racialised and gendered stereotypes, creating harms that cannot be understood through either racism or sexism alone. High profile examples in recent years have demonstrated how quickly online spaces can become sites of targeted and coordinated abuse. Any meaningful response to online violence in football must therefore recognise the compounding and different ways abuse is experienced.
While these experiences occur within football related settings, they cannot be understood in isolation from wider patterns of gender inequality and violence against women and girls. The abuse experienced by women in football reflects many of the same attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that shape women’s experiences in workplaces, educational settings, politics, public life and online spaces more broadly. Football therefore provides a particularly visible lens through which to examine these issues because of its cultural significance, its influence on social norms, and the historically male dominated environments in which sexism and misogyny can continue to be normalised.
This has important implications for how we respond. If misogyny in football is viewed solely as a football problem, there is a risk that efforts become confined to individual clubs, competitions or campaigns. While football clubs, governing bodies and leagues undoubtedly have important responsibilities, meaningful and sustainable change requires a broader systems approach that recognises violence against women and girls as a societal challenge rather than a sector specific one.
The experiences of women in football also demonstrate why policy responses to violence against women and girls must better reflect the interconnected nature of online and offline harms. Abuse directed at women supporters, players, journalists and pundits rarely remains confined to a single space. Instead, it moves across social media platforms, messaging services, fan communities and physical environments, creating a continuum of harm that existing policy and regulatory frameworks continue to grapple with.
This reality is being recognised within both policy and practice. The Government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy Implementation Plan acknowledges the important role that sport can play in preventing harmful attitudes and behaviours, while the establishment of the Independent Football Regulator presents an opportunity to consider how inclusion, safeguarding and supporter culture are embedded within the governance of the game. Alongside these developments, professional leagues, clubs and supporter groups have begun investing in initiatives that seek to challenge sexism, promote pro-social behaviours and encourage men to act as allies. Together, these efforts reflect a growing recognition that football is not separate from wider efforts to tackle violence against women and girls, but an important part of them.
Yet regulation and policy frameworks alone will not deliver the cultural change required. Decades of research on violence against women and girls demonstrate that prevention depends not only on institutional action, but also on the active engagement of men and boys. Given that men make up the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against women and girls, they must also play a central role in challenging the attitudes and behaviours that enable it.
In football, this means men acting as allies wherever and however the game is being experienced. It means challenging misogynistic comments online rather than scrolling past them. It means refusing to dismiss sexist chants, abuse or harassment as simply part of football culture. It means helping to create welcoming grassroots environments for women and girls and supporting those who experience abuse, whether in stadiums, pubs, parks, workplaces or online spaces.
Most importantly, it means recognising that tackling misogyny is not a women’s issue, it is a collective responsibility.
Football has enormous power to shape attitudes, behaviours and social norms. That influence can be used to reinforce harmful stereotypes, but it can also be harnessed to challenge them, as we see in some of the most memorable moments of the game. As attention turns to the next major men’s tournament, football should be viewed not only as a site where sexism and misogyny can occur, but as a powerful platform for prevention, education and cultural change.
If we are serious about tackling violence against women and girls, both online and offline, football cannot be viewed in isolation from society. Equally, society cannot afford to overlook football’s influence in shaping the attitudes and behaviours that will ultimately determine whether meaningful change is achieved.
