“I want to be in the world of football as much as possible” — from a fan’s perspective
EURO22 sparked a revolution across women’s football. Now, hear from a fan who witnessed the effects of the tournament first-hand.
Before 2022, Evie Purcell had little interest in football. While occasionally tuning in to support the Three Lions, she had no link to a club of her own, with women’s football even further out of reach for the 18-year-old. Less than two years later, Purcell’s world has been turned upside down as she finds herself leading the charge among her friends and family.
Having come from a relatively sporty household, it was tennis that stole the spotlight for Purcell and her parents. As far as the beautiful game went, sitting down for a 90-minute thriller was a rarity.
“We’re not really a football family”, she explained. “We’ve never had Sky Sports or anything, so we didn’t watch loads of it. I’ve never really followed a men’s team.”
Fast forward to July of last year, and Purcell somehow found herself in front of an England women’s game for the first time. Unaware of how she got there, it was the start of a new-found obsession for the teenager.
“I have no idea what got me into it, I just sat down and watched it and was hooked instantly.
“Immediately after the match, I remember thinking that the quality of football was great, the commentary was great, the personality from within the game was great.
“I got online and started to get to know the players, and by the end of the tournament I sort of had this knowledge. I don’t know where it came from, but I loved it.”
Without a club to lean on, Purcell was left eagerly wanting more once the European Championships came to an end. With another year to wait until the Lionesses returned to tournament football, she ventured out into the WSL.
“I thought, there’s no way I’m giving this up for another year, I’m not going to wait until the World Cup, I want to keep watching this. I want to be in the world of football as much as possible.”
After research, Purcell discovered her local clubs were Arsenal or Chelsea — and opted for the former, a team she gets behind as often as she can. Speaking of her most treasured football moments, the Gooner recalled the first time she sat in a red seat at The Emirates.
“The first time I walked in [to The Emirates], the stadium was full, the sound was huge, the scale of it was huge. I remember I couldn’t stop beaming. I walked in I thought, ‘yes, this is so right, I absolutely love this’ — that’s a really key moment for me”.
Without a football-mad family to chat with post-match, Purcell has had to build her own support network, as well as encouraging friends to join her in the packed-out stands on game day.
“For the Arsenal vs Wolfsburg game, I managed to get eight of my friends to go along — I told them two months in advance, expecting one or two of them to come, and I got eight — that was amazing, rocking up there, a couple of them bought scarves.
“They had no allegiance to football, they barely knew anything about the sport, but they were all so eager about it, and they knew how much I cared about it.”
It wasn’t only her friends who were new-found supporters for the Champions League semi-final — Purcell spoke with fans sat behind her who had temporarily traded in their commitment to Mikel Arteta’s side.
“We got chatting to the guys sat next to us, four 25-year-old blokes who supported Arsenal men, but knew it was a big match and thought why not come along.
“That’s when I knew the sport was expanding and there were new people around us and everyone cared.”
When asked why she finds the women’s game more attractive than the men’s, Purcell’s response was clear.
“It’s the personality of the players. With men’s football, there’s a tendency to put players in a box — they’re players first, they’re players only, we think they don’t have lives, all people care about is them as players.
“Whereas with the women’s game, there’s so much more than that.
“It’s more than just a sport, it’s more than just football — seeing the players as people, not just as sporting machines. You feel so much more of a connection to them.”
As her love for the sport continues to grow, Purcell has seen revolutionary changes across the top divisions of women’s football — but recognises that certain problems are still going unnoticed.
“Something I’ve really noticed is the pitch quality — sometimes at Meadow Park the pitch is practically frozen.
“In [Laia] Codina’s first introductory video for Arsenal, there’s a clip of her going to the Emirates and kneeling to feel the grass and noting how perfect it was, because it’s so manicured in these huge stadiums.
“You don’t get anything like that at these smaller women’s teams.”
Purcell remains committed to encouraging those around her to tune in to the women’s game, but often faces difficulty with the level of marketing and resources offered to the WSL.
“When you’re watching on DAZN, you don’t get any halftime punditry — it’s a very different experience, watching on YouTube compared to watching on BBC Sport or Sky Sports — when these games don’t get publicised, they’re a lot less accessible.
It’s not just women’s football itself that has a long way to go. For Purcell, being a woman interested in football is often just as challenging.
“I was talking confidently to a couple of guys, we were talking about a match on the weekend, and some other guy chimes in and said ‘woah Evie, you’ve actually got ball knowledge?’. You would never say that to a guy.
“One of my friends was walking home and was asked ‘but, are you actually a Man City fan?’ — that’s still such a barrier. But women’s football is football.”
With tickets to see England face the Netherlands at Wembley next week, Purcell is ready to see the Lionesses take to the stage yet again — after all, it’s what made her football-mad in the first place.
“The Lionesses made me fall in love with the sport — even when they’re gone and retired and it’s a whole new generation of footballers, it’s still the Lionesses.”
