As far back as 2018, Manchester United had begun to redefine what it meant to be a fan of women’s football.
The rapid growth of the game in recent years — Sunday’s FA Cup final attendance of 77,390 is a world record for a women’s domestic match, and almost 32,000 better than the previous record FA Cup final attendance of 45,423 — means that the sport’s identity feels especially malleable.
First, there was the drive to target the game at families. A home Euros renewed hopes of inspiring a generation. United’s 2018 WSL arrival added venom and bite hitherto unseen in a sport that routinely saw players move between rival clubs with little reaction. United’s 2017 relaunch funnelled across thousands of supporters who had spent their lives immersed in the vastly different culture of the men’s game. United have been one of the major driving forces — perhaps the biggest — in the women’s game evolving into something more partisan.
Maybe that’s why Marc Skinner, the Manchester United manager, felt especially aggrieved that United and Chelsea were allocated around 8,000 tickets each for the cup final. United fans were vocal in their belief that they could have sold more. By the time this season’s finalists had been confirmed, the FA had already shifted 65,000…
