HER GAME TOO - 2024 ROUND-UP

This year saw further growth of the campaign, as Her Game Too celebrated its third birthday, developed new partnerships, held and attended numerous events and grew its team of volunteers and supporters.

With 2024 drawing to a close, look back at some of the campaign’s key highlights from throughout the year:

New partnerships and advocates

Brighton and Hove Albion, Olympic Lyonnais and Derby County were among the football clubs to partner with Her Game Too this year, as well as a number of football-related organisations and charities that share the campaign’s values. Several new advocates from existing partner clubs also pledged their support, including Her Game Too’s first Manager Advocate Darren Marjoram, who manages Cambridge United Women, and Darlington FC captain Scott Barrow, who became a Player Advocate. Kayole Starlets, a club working towards professionalising women’s football in Kenya, became the first African side to partner with Her Game Too.

Dedicated fixtures

International Women’s Day in March once again raised the profile of Her Game Too, with dozens of football clubs throughout the Premier League, EFL and non-league dedicating matches to the campaign. This included players warming up in Her Game Too t-shirts, local girls’ grassroots clubs being involved in matchday activities and players speaking about the importance of the campaign on their clubs’ social media channels. One of the highlights was Bradford City inviting the club’s Her Game Too team to deliver a presentation about the campaign to players and speak on the pitch at half-time. Four televised Premier League games also featured “Kick Sexism Out” branding on advertising boards during games, with the Her Game Too logo pictured alongside Kick it Out’s branding.

First Time Fans

Groups of females attended their first football matches, thanks to a new partnership with EA Sports. The First Time Fans initiative brought women and girls together to experience live football in a comfortable group environment, with Her Game Too Ambassadors welcoming the fans and providing a tour and insight into the club, EA Sports sponsoring the tickets and attendees receiving goodie bags and special guides to the match. The first two events were hosted by Her Game Too partner clubs Brentford and Brighton and Hove Albion, with local females who hadn’t previously attended a professional male football match applying for places. Further First Time Fans events are planned for 2025.

Action against sexism

Her Game Too continued to offer support to victims of sexism and misogyny, including Issy Anderson, who joined Her Game Too as an advocate after a social media post announcing her as Shrewton United’s new sports therapist attracted inappropriate and offensive comments relating to her gender. After being forced to delete the post to prevent the reaction spiralling further, Shrewton United went on to partner with Her Game Too. Issy then spoke out about the abuse and comments she has received as a female football sports therapist, and why she is determined it won’t discourage her from doing the job she loves.

Podcast launch

The campaign reached new audiences through the introduction of the Her Game Too podcast, featuring the stories of campaign ambassadors and supporters. The podcast, hosted by Clayton Fernandes, has provided an opportunity to discuss key topics, such as personal experiences of sexism and partnership working, in depth. Episodes have included an interview with Birmingham City’s Her Game Too Player Advocate Lukas Jutkiewicz and a focus on South Asian Heritage Month, featuring the campaign’s Aston Villa Ambassador Priyanka Jasraj and Uma Bagalkote, who is a Her Game Too Cricket Advocate.

Awards and nominations

The Football Content Awards recognised Her Game Too for a third successive year, as the campaign won silver in the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Organisation category. Roopa Vyas, COO of Her Game Too, also won silver in the EDI Individual category. The FCAs are voted for by both the public and judges to reward achievements in football-related content creation across a range of categories, and nominees included media organisations, podcasters, football clubs, charities, individual content creators and footballers. A group of Her Game Too ambassadors and advocates attended November’s ceremony held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which was hosted by Joel Beya. The campaign was also nominated for the EDI award at the Women’s Football Awards in the spring.

Third birthday celebrations

Football journalist Bianca Westwood hosted a party to mark three years since Her Game Too launched, with the campaign’s partners, volunteers and supporters invited to celebrate together and network. The event included a question-and-answer session with Bianca about her career and her personal experiences of sexism in football, a raffle to raise money for girls’ grassroots football initiatives, a screening of the FA Cup Final and an EA Sports FC gaming experience. 

Growth of Her Game Too France

A number of new partnerships were secured in France, building key relationships with the likes of Olympique Lyonnais, the French Football Association and the Ligue de Football Professionnel. The LFP partnership launched around International Women’s Day in March, with a campaign promoting the presence of female supporters in French stadiums; this included an awareness film featuring Her Game Too ambassadors, which was shown on giant screens in all Ligue 1 Uber Eats and Ligue 2 BKT stadiums. AS Saint-Étienne also printed #HerGameToo on players’ shirts to showcase their support for the campaign.

Filming of #KickSexismOut

Her Game Too Ambassadors took part in the filming of Kick It Out’s attention-grabbing campaign video, telling the story of a fictional male football fan attending a match. The film illustrated unpleasant elements of his day that female fans often report experiencing at games, including comments about how men shouldn’t have an opinion on women’s football, unwelcome physical contact and the use of sexist language towards men. Her Game Too supported Kick It Out’s creative process in developing ideas for the film’s content and script, while also helping to source extras for the filming from the campaign’s network of supporters, including the linesman who was targeted with misogynistic comments in the film.

Strides forward in ice hockey and esports

Manchester Storm became the first Elite Ice Hockey League Club to partner with Her Game Too. Meanwhile a new gaming arm of the campaign was launched to promote inclusivity in esports - aiming to empower more women to engage in gaming in a safe and welcoming environment. EA Sports FC 25 also introduced a unique Her Game Too kit, which gamers can dress their teams in while playing.

Cymru qualify for first major women’s tournament

Her Game Too Cymru were there to document Wales Women’s historic journey to securing a spot at Women’s EURO 2025 in Switzerland, where Cymru will play reigning champions England, France and the Netherlands in the group stage in July. The Cymru arm of Her Game Too marked its first birthday this year and developed a number of new partnerships, including with Haverfordwest County AFC, Pontypridd United and Riverside Sports Bar. Her Game Too Cymru also secured a grant from the National Lottery Fund to build on the campaign's ongoing projects in Wales and attended the Adran Premier season launch.

Attendance at partner events

A number of Her Game Too partner clubs held events supporting the campaign’s values. This included Bristol City hosting a networking and question-and-answer session featuring the club’s head of women’s football in partnership and Oxford United holding an interactive talk with their outgoing head of medical services, aimed at inspiring the next generation of female footballers. Her Game Too directors were also invited to speak at the Athens Women’s Football Summit, while the campaign was also represented at events including the launch of the Football Association’s strategy, Women in Football’s Be Inspired Conference, Three UK’s We See You Network events and the London FA Grassroots Awards.

New cricket partnerships developed

Her Game Too Cricket continued to grow, with new partnerships announced with Essex County Cricket Club and Leicestershire County Cricket Club, as well as Devon Cricket Foundation, Wiltshire Cricket Board, Lord's Taverners and Scarborough College - a first school partnership - among others. Gloucestershire CCC and Leicestershire CCC both held dedicated fixtures and Paige Caunce and Charlotte Ashton spoke about the campaign at Yorkshire Cricket Board's Women and Girls Cricket Conference at Headingley. Her Game Too Cricket also marked International Women's Day by celebrating some of the most influential women in the sport through a social media campaign.