Lewes FC men’s team….if you can remember them, are having a great start to the season. Having recently been promoted to the Bostik League Premier Division, tier 7 of the national structure, we have played 6 games and are sitting pretty just below the play off zone in 10th place 4 points off that zone. However there are two interesting factors to take into consideration. Firstly 5 of our 6 games have been against teams in the top 7. This makes the place and achievement all the more impressive. Secondly. our home form has been very poor, two points out of nine. I will try and explain an emerging trend.
I think the genuine ground breaking initiative of budget parity and gaining access to the Women’s Championship at Lewes FC is a truly wonderful thing and I am proud my club has taken a stand on the disgusting gender gaps in football. It is a truly unacceptable state of affairs and benefit’s nobody.
My misgivings are that it trashed our core aim of being self sustained, it is a de facto ethical Private Finance Initiative. Our other core aims of democracy and transparency are also trashed, nobody knows about the financing of it and none of the 1300 members were ever consulted.
But is there another unquantifiable negative impact. That of our home form ?
Are the male players feeling disenfranchised ? The people at the club who have done such a great job of highlighting what we are doing at Lewes have possibly started hacking the male players off. In the press we are branded the women’s team and a look at out website and the marketing of the club sees the ladies team heavily promoted. This is because we hope the initiative will bring in large sponsors to pay for it all. So fair enough maybe ? But are, to quote pellsfan, on the Lewes FC forum, the men’s team being ‘marginalised.’
Is a bi product of this a feeling in the men’s squad that they are less valuable than the ladies ? they share the pitch with the ladies, rightly so, but football is a very male orientated culture and do the players feel less valid, robbed even ? Is running out at the start of the game with home advantage less of an advantage if it does not feel home. Your own home. Certainly the atmosphere at the Pan has dwindled recently with a murmur from the terrace barely audible these days. Has our rise in stature over the budget parity publicity, that has made us one of the most recognisable non league clubs in the country meant teams coming to play us, the famous Lewes, raise their game ?
We were promoted last year. Last year was the beginning of the budget parity initiative and it is fair to say that promotion was largely on the back of an amazing away record.
It may have nothing to do with it but evidence certainly would indicate a trend is emerging and setting up a scenario of how the budget parity scenario could eventually back fire on the team that most people at the club support and get behind. It does maybe raise questions of traditions, football culture, gender diversity and values that none of us can answer. After all the first club to have budget parity it will be affect the empowerment of the men’s team. We have seen the enormous positive affect it has had on the men’s team. Time will tell but it will be fascinating to observe.
The Rights of Fans. 