Meet Match of the Dames - the mission to get more women watching football
Meet Match of the Dames - the mission to get more women watching football
Sally Freedman - BBC SportSat, August 8, 2026 at 6:43 AM UTC
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The campaign group says football has been a "boy's club" for too long
In the summer before Match of the Dames launched, founder Anne Morris walked around the stands at non-league Altrincham FC with one goal in mind - to count the number of women.
And the result - just a tiny fraction of the total crowd - gave her all the motivation she needed.
Morris told the BBC: "We think the stands have been a boy's club long enough.
"I walked around and the ground, the ticket gate was 1,200 and I counted about 88 women."
A new project was born, and is now positively thriving.
What is Match of the Dames?
In 2025, Match of the Dames first launched in partnership with Altrincham FC.
Its aim was to introduce more women to live football by inviting first-time female supporters to matches throughout the season.
At Altrincham, 20 women attended 20 fixtures – 10 at home and 10 away – with places at away games offered to women and girls from the host club's local community.
Following that success, the scheme is now expanding to five clubs around the country for the 2026-27 season.
Alongside Altrincham, Brackley Town, Hartlepool United, Solihull Moors and Southend United will all take part.
The project also aims to strengthen connections between clubs and their communities while encouraging more women to become regular football supporters.
Each club will host eight dedicated Match of the Dames fixtures, including one women's team match.
The addition reflects the strong interest in the women's game shown by participants during the pilot season.
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A total of 25 women and girls will be invited to each event, with the scheme aiming to welcome 1,000 first-time female supporters to non-league football across the season.
The longer-term ambition is to develop a model that can be adopted by clubs of any size, in any league, to help attract and engage more female fans.
How does it work on match day?
Morris explained she had set up a WhatsApp group for participants to chat the weekend before each event, to explain all the logistics and give the group the opportunity to ask questions and get to know each other before match day.
"There's a detailed match day outline on our website, broken down into pre-match warm-up, the big day and the post-match cool down," she said.
"I would choose a different venue each time for our meet-ups, and we would gather around two hours before the game at a local, independent cafe, or restaurant and have a bite to eat.
"So you'd have an hour there, meet and greet, chat, get to know each other.
"And just as we're about to leave the cafe, I hand the the scarves out. Once everyone has their scarves, we take a group photo and set off to the ground which is 15-20 minutes walk away.
"So it's not just about the football, it's the journey into the football stadium too."
The ultimate aim, though, is to give women the bug for the beautiful game, and get them feeling the addrenalin rush of the ball hitting the back of the net.
"I started it in order to bring women in, but I also wanted them to feel the energy of when you're in a big crowd," Morris said.
"When the ball's coming forward and if it goes in the goal, the way the stand goes up.
"If I could bottle it, that would be the experience I'd want people to have and go away with."
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Source: “AOL Sports”
