At a recent fan day, two young women approached Ahmad Elrich for a photograph and he was happy to oblige. As the girls thanked him I heard two passing guys mutter “groupies!”
Now these two women take football very seriously. Both keen Mariners supporters, they have also played football themselves for more than ten years. But at the risk of stating ‘the bleeding obvious’ they are female: is it really such a crime if they occasionally appreciate a player’s physical attractiveness? Does it make them less committed fans because they might describe some of the Mariners as ‘hot’?Since joining CCM, Elrich has been described by a vocal group of (male) fans as ‘fat’, ‘unfit’ and ‘a pie eater’. In contrast, a random selection of female Mariners’ fans I surveyed described Elrich as: ‘gorgeous’, ‘sexy’ and ‘best body in the A-League’.
On New Year’s Eve I heard a very loud bloke with a beer in one hand and a hotdog in the other claim that Petrovski was comparing his beergut with Marc Anthony. No mate, a beergut’s what you have – these guys are fit athletes.
As one teenage Mariner’s member put it: “I think guys get a bit jealous. We get to watch fantastic footballing skills AND we also get to check out some eye candy.” For the same thrill, guys, you’d better make time to watch the W-League.
In Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby’s brilliant book about being a football fan, he claims that women will never be as fanatical about a team as men: “I have met women who have loved football and go to watch a number of games a season, but I have not yet met one who would make that Wednesday night trip to Plymouth.”
Try telling that to the three women at Bluetongue in beautifully made purple T-shirts expressing their support for Topor-Stanley. As if travelling from Perth to Gosford wasn’t enough!
In fact, the most dedicated football fan I have ever met was a English woman named Marian who supported Leeds United during their “glory years”. For a period of ten years she had only missed two matches, including attending all internationals around Europe.
Marian sadly passed away at a young age and her ashes were scattered at Elland Road, but I think of her whenever I see other women who love their team the way she loved hers. Among A-League crowds, there are many of them.
Sure, we might appreciate the smorgasbord of male beauty on offer in the A-League, but we are just as passionate about football and our team as our male counterparts.
Australian women love sport and they have embraced the A-League in record numbers. Indeed, one of the A-League’s greatest success stories has been its ability to attract a substantial group of female supporters, an achievement other codes reportedly envy.
Statistics don’t seem to be available, but I would estimate around 40% of Mariners’ fans are female. This is certainly far more than I ever remember attending NSL games.
Week in week out, women paint their faces, make banners, do their nails in team colours. They laugh and cry and yell at the ref and yes, amazingly, most of them do understand the offside rule!
Unfortunately, marketing departments are still living in prehistoric times when men loved footy and women stayed in the kitchen to prepare hot suggestions. A prominent ad for Euro 2008’s TV coverage featured a “ditch the wife/boss/girlfriend” scenario while the “perfect flatmates” ad assumes women who prefer football to chickflicks only exist in beer-soaked fantasy.
Like most Mariners fans I’ll be fantasising about the ultimate away trip this week, as we eagerly await the draw for the ACL. I could be imagining how cute the Mariners will look in their new ACL strip, but I take my football a lot more seriously than that.
Instead, I’ll be hoping that next season the FFA spends some of their extra marketing budget on attracting even more committed female supporters. Can I suggest say, a tasteful calendar - “A-League Adonises” anyone?
This week, Julia fails to understand how Craig Foster can omit Matt Simon from his list of ‘emerging talents’ that should be included in Pim’s squad for the Asian Cup Qualifiers. Unless it’s because he plays for the ‘wrong’ club.
