Women’s Football Fans Deserve The Same Treatment As A Man: How Brands Need To Change Their Marketing Style

As the game develops, women’s football fans are no longer a marketing opportunity. Brands don’t seem to understand who women’s football and LGBTQ+ fans actually are.

(Image credit to EIIE)

Whereas a male football fan is assumed to understand technical knowledge, transfer news and refereeing decisions and then female and LGBTQ+ football fans are assumed to only want photos, pink products and lots of drama.

The Problem With Media Representation

The media don’t see LGBTQ+ and women’s football fans who have key engagement and excellent knowledge of the game and club. Many fans have had to shy away for so long due to the media not representing them right, while they know and understand the game just as any fan does many marketing campaigns frequently reduce them to stereotypes pulled from a Pinterest board and “girly” ideas.

Marketing Based On Stereotypes

The marketing campaigns seem to obsess over matcha, pastel colours and girlhood. This reveals a lack of confidence that women and people in the LGBTQ+ can enjoy football for the game of football. Brands are obliged to make the sport within a familiar feminine interest; many supporters just want campaigns that highlight them as a part of the game who have knowledge. As the growth of women’s football and fans happens as we speak, it’s an important opportunity for brands to rethink their marketing approach. This requires moving on from the idea that women in sports are a niche category with the same interest, as they are not watching the sport as it’s wrapped in pink; they watch it due to having a genuine interest in the sport.

Case Study - Sky Sports Halo

Sky sports halo TikTok account was made in November 2025 and is a key example of this. The channel only lasted three days before it was axed due to major backlash at the posts they were displaying. A channel that was meant to support the growth of women watching sport was actually seen as the channel almost condescendingly mansplaining sport. Using pink font and phrases such as “hot girl walk” “matcha” and also the channel being named the “little sis” suggesting sport for women was less important than the male dominated field.

However this could have easily been a good idea to grow women’s sport. Instead of focusing on male athletes it could focus more on female athletes where sports are often underfunded and not shown in mainstream media. They could make informative content about events instead of the content they made that actually didn’t focus on sports at all. 

How the Media Currently Presents Female And LGBTQ+ Fans

As you scroll through social media there’s on clear repartition that everything is designed to be/feel cute, aesthetically pleasing with images of matcha, friendships, instagramable fan zones lots of pink and glitter this makes football seems to come second this is a huge assumption that women and members of the LGBTQ don’t want to watch football for the game  and only want it through there photos but that’s incorrect this reflects on a major wider picture in marketing rather than treating LGBTQ+ and women’s football fan like any other football fan who has technical knowledge, club loyalty and a clear interest in the game brands show them as consumers stereotype first and supporters second.

What The Media Can Do Better 

Media organisations and brands should invest time in understanding women’s Football‘s audience instead of relying on outdated stereotypes. Campaigns should be built around the same idea as they do when creating marketing for our football fans passion knowledge competition and club loyalty. Women's football fans should be recognised as genuine supporters rather than people following for a temporary trend representation should reflect on the diversity of football fandom is showing women and LGBTQ+ supporters discussing tactic celebrating victories, analysing performances and contributing to Football culture in the same way most supporters are shown routinely.

The Impact Of Bad Representation

Poor representation can reinforce the most beliefs that women know less about football than men which is a major stereotype and these can cause fans to feel unwelcome in a football environment and discourage them to be involved.

The Impact Of Good Representation

The way football fans are represented influences how they are seen when women’s football supporters are consistently portrayed for stereotypes. It can contribute to false beliefs that they are less knowledgeable or less passionate about the sport, better representation with challenges as it would help normalise women as a football expert, reduce stigma surrounding women’s sports and encourage a rise in the fact that football is a sport that everyone can understand, not just men. Massively improving representation benefits not only fans but also female athletes when supporters are taken seriously the sport itself is taking more seriously women’s Football deserves the coverage that reflects its quality. Its growth and how knowledgeable fans are.

Article written by Nailah Gajia, Megan Cavill and Laila Driscoll