The cardboard sign prompted a wry smirk. “Sam Kerr,” it read. “Can I have your credit card number, expiry date and security code?”
The tweet encapsulated not only the intensity of female players’ new celebrity but also how a sizeable chunk of women’s football supporters feel about it all.
You’ll have seen a hundred less satirical variations of this sign at Women’s Super League (WSL) matches over the past year: pleas for shirts and boots sketched out under the misguided assumption that elite women players have spares to give away. Those signs parallel the kind of expectations that had England supporters chanting for players to “get off the bus” after the 2-1 win over Scotland in the Women’s Nations League game last month, breeding further disapproval.
Lionesses fans chanting ‘get off the bus’ after the game is a new level disrespect 😯 pic.twitter.com/i7gjQGMB4p
— Charlotte Wilkins (@cwilkins_8) September 22, 2023
That culture shift, accelerated after the Lionesses’ European Championship win in 2022, pulls together myriad issues and leaves the sport with some thinking to do. The stratification of the football pyramid since the Premier League’s 1992 creation has long placed its biggest stars beyond reach. In response, the EFL and the women’s…
