Actions of March 8, partnership with the Her Game Too association… French football is organizing to fight sexism in its stadiums

As part of International Women’s Rights Day, Friday, the Professional Football League (LFP) unveils a campaign to highlight female supporters, and a partnership with the Her Game Too France association.

“Because the twelfth man is also a woman, let’s celebrate all the female stadium spectators.” It is with this sentence that the awareness clip of the Professional Football League (LFP) ends for the launch of a broader fight: the fight against sexism in stadiums. Alone, with others, with family , women are increasingly present in Ligue 1 stadiums – around 17% in Ligue 1 and 15% in Ligue 2 in 2022, according to a study carried out by the Nielsen Sports firm for the LFP, compared to 11% in 2013. During of the 25th and 28th days of Ligue 1 and Ligue 2, this weekend of March 8, several actions will accompany the meetings: the broadcast of the awareness clip, kid girl escorts, the presence of ball girls, etc.

The League has partnered with the Her Game Too association, born in the United Kingdom and based in France since 2022, which raises awareness of issues of sexism in stadiums and fights for greater inclusiveness in sport. “We wanted to work with an association that is connected to football. Her Game Too was an opportunity, through its network of ambassadors and women who go to the stadium, and it’s a fantastic illustration of what’s happening in the stands.”we confide on the LFP side.

Record interest among women in football

Emilie, supporter of FC Nantes and Loire stand subscriber for eight years, was the victim of sexism and sexual assault at the stadium: “It was mainly sentences like ‘You’re a woman, you don’t even know what offside is’, ‘You only come to the stadium to watch the players, find another stand’… But there were also gestures, notably wandering hands during pogos or even hands on the buttocks. It was high time that the LFP did something.”, exclaims the 23-year-old young woman. “So much the better if this campaign helps free women’s voices.”reacts the League.

Last November, Lensoise supporters denounced excavations “pushing in private parts” before entering the Océane stadium in Le Havre. In total, eight complaints had been filed, all by Lens supporters, and all dismissed according to The voice of the North.

This campaign was launched in a context of an increase in the share of female audiences in football stadiums. According to an Ipsos image barometer carried out in November-December 2023 for the LFP, women’s interest in football has never been higher: 11.4 million women say they are interested in football. A figure up by 1.6 million in one year.

“What we expected was a realistic campaign. We didn’t want to be lecturing. We didn’t want to be pathos, because football is very often a party, especially in the stands, women also participate.”, underlines Anoush Morel, president of Her Game Too France. The association did not wait for the LFP to launch its actions with the clubs. It has already signed partnership agreements with AS Saint-Etienne, Toulouse FC and most recently AJ Auxerre and discussions with Olympique Lyonnais are very advanced…

AS Saint-Etienne is thus the first French club to have signed an agreement with the association, last February. “Inclusion at ASSE is one of the three pillars of our CSR approach that we launched last year. We wanted to target women, we have a fairly female audience, between 17 and 20% of our subscribers are women. We want Geoffroy-Guichard to be an inclusive place, so when we learned about this association, we quickly wanted to sign the agreement they were proposing.”observes Thomas Granger, head of communications for the Greens.

During this campaign launch weekend, the club will unveil several measures, including an online form which will allow victims and witnesses to report gender-based and sexual violence and harassment (VHSS) to Geoffroy-Guichard: “Her Game Too collects the information and can transmit it to us afterwards”, underlines Thomas Granger. “It’s important that the League takes up the subject, it puts all of French football in the same movement.”

“We work hand in hand with the clubsassures Anoush Morel. They are the inviting force, it is up to them to put in place systems that ensure that stadiums are safe places for female fans, they are the ones who train the stewards to react in the event of sexual assault… We must also that clubs make sure that women don’t just feel like a ‘+1’ at the stadium. They are not necessarily mothers who accompany a child, they are real supporters who are in love with football”she adds.

The association, for example, organized a workshop at the end of 2023 with Stade Rennes around the issue of dealing with gender-based and sexual violence in stadiums with reception and security staff at Roazhon Park. And intends to multiply these awareness workshops.

Few coercive levers to activate

Émilie, the Nantes supporter, does not hide her doubts about the effectiveness of the League’s action: “I’m afraid that it won’t necessarily help solve the problem… We see that it already doesn’t work with campaigns to fight racism or even homophobia, why would it work for sexism?” Her Game Too’s association with the project is nevertheless positive according to her: “The work of this association on the ground is already impressive so it can bring a lot to our stands.”

The difficulty will be to continue to keep this fight alive after this International Women’s Rights Day. The actors are aware of this: “With this first initiative, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to see how we can better work on this issue in depth with the clubs, and how they can take charge of it. Everyone must take their part, must take their responsibilities”insists the LFP, which, as with the fight against racism and homophobia, will organize workshops within clubs.

But few levers are at the disposal of the LFP to sanction, constrain, the clubs which refuse to play the game. Each season, the League awards a license, a sort of specifications which the clubs are obliged to respect, to bring together the more points possible. To obtain it, a minimum of 7,000 points is required for Ligue 1 residents, 6,000 for those in Ligue 2: “Today, in the club license, we have a criterion which values ​​the holding of workshops to combat discrimination in clubs. So when clubs do these workshops, they earn points.”

The CSR criteria, which concern the fight against discrimination or ecology, represent a total of around 1,000 points out of 10,000. Obtaining or not this license does not determine the participation of a club in the championship. However, it conditions the perception of TV rights. A club that did not obtain its club license would only receive half of the TV rights to which it could have been entitled, a significant shortfall.

“We will see which clubs want to do it for their supporters and which want to do it to please the League.”concludes Anoush Morel.