The WSL wants better atmosphere at games but must make sure that what happened at United v Liverpool is not repeated

Growth brings change. It is inevitable. Women’s football is growing at an impressive rate. Attendances are starting to climb. The showpiece fixtures – 24,790 at the London Stadium on Sunday, 24,564 at Stamford Bridge and 31,213 at the Etihad on the opening weekend – are stealing the headlines and attendance figures are already closing on the number of fans across all 110 WSL games last season (92,000). But the more standard home venues of women’s teams are also seeing more fans through the turnstiles too.

Providing a welcoming environment for all is important. It would be easy and understandable for long-time fans of the women’s game, who have stuck with it through the cold and empty lows, to resent slightly the arrival of new kids on the block or any changes to their usual routine or to the “way things are done”.

And there is an element of that in the attitudes towards Manchester United fans on the club’s re-entry to women’s football last season. These are not fans of women’s football per se, they are fans of Manchester United and, as such, bring the “everybody hates us but we don’t care” swagger of the club’s supporters as a whole into Leigh Sports Village to cheer on Casey Stoney’s side each week.

What is not OK is when chants are offensive. The “always the victim, it’s never your fault” chants directed at Liverpool by United supporters at Leigh on Saturday have rightly been flagged to the FA by the Merseyside club.

Liverpool report offensive ‘Hillsborough chants’ to Football Association Read more

For victims, families and fans that had to embark on a gruelling 30-year fight against multiple sections of the establishment to be cleared of any blame for the deaths of 96 supporters at Hillsborough it is hugely offensive and triggering. “Never your fault” has over the years made a mockery of their fight for the truth.

There is no place for this type of chanting in football. To have this chant rear its head at a women’s football match is unprecedented and hugely disappointing. Manchester United and the FA have said they are both investigating and it is right that this incident is dealt with firmly.

In May fans of Manchester City men’s team defended a version of Allez, Allez, Allez using the line “victims of it all” and “battered on the streets” being sung by players and staff members on a plane saying they were referring to the incident between Mo Salah and Sergio Ramos in the 2018 Champions League final. Manchester United men’s team fans have previously claimed to be using the chant in reference to the Luis Suárez racism row. But if something is considered offensive, just saying it is not, or challenging the affronted’s interpretation, does not make it inoffensive.

But one has to be careful about blaming the influx of new fans into the women’s game for this incident. Football reflects attitudes in wider society. Hate speech and bullying have seeped into the mainstream, where to shock is the norm, where the Katie Hopkinses and Tommy Robinsons of the world can make livings from being controversial and offensive. In a week where Boris Johnson, Dominic Cummings and their ilk are the focus of a debate around appropriate language it should be no surprise that there are similar conversations about respect in football.

There is a lot to like in the fiery atmosphere more fans bring. For one, players like playing in intense environments; they thrive off their passion on the pitch being mimicked in the stands. After Toni Duggan scored in front of a sold-out 60,739 fans at the Wanda Metropolitano against the Atlético Madrid team she has now joined, she gushed about the quality of the crowd being more important than the quantity.

“There’s a picture of me celebrating and behind me there’s actually a man putting one finger up,” she recalled. “I’m not promoting that or saying it’s a good thing but it kind of showed what it meant. You could feel the passion in the stadium that day. It was a real atmosphere.”

When United played champions Arsenal for the first time in the Women’s Super League a week ago, tensions were high. That it was an 89th-minute goal that would give the Gunners all three points ensured the ground became more of a cauldron as the clock ticked. The booing of Jordan Nobbs, whose return from a World Cup-ending cruciate ligament injury has been well documented, when she was scythed down in her own half was a little distasteful. The “same old Arsenal, always cheating” was just a bit irrelevant to followers of the women’s team.

The “Man City reject” chants at Mel Lawley were slightly ironic given the player she had slid into, Ella Toone, was also a former Manchester City player. The boos as players’ names were read out and the booing of substitutes, all added to a feeling that they are going against a sort of unwritten rule that in women’s football you should cheer not jeer, that the family friendly atmosphere must be preserved.

But why? And what exactly is a family friendly atmosphere? Part of the joy of standing in the stands watching men’s football, particularly as a child, is watching and experiencing collective euphoria/devastation/frustration. It is of seeing your parent or sibling swear with raw instinctive emotion, unusually uncensored, and feeling as if, for once, you are being treated as an adult and trusted to use your judgment rather than being tiptoed around.

There is a difference between a family friendly environment and an infantilised and sterile one that casts aside some of the best bits of fandom in search of a purified utopia. The balance must be found.

More people in the women’s game means a bigger demographic and wider views will be represented at grounds. That includes a sometimes vocal minority. That does not mean inappropriate behaviour should be accepted. Football can and should lead the way on challenging lazy stereotypes, racism, sexism and offensive behaviour and use education, bans and its influence to change things. But until these ugly views from society are eradicated they will rear their heads in sport, which must make sure it keeps cracking down on them.

Talking points

• Seattle Reign confirmed a place in the NWSL play-off finals with a 2-0 win over Portland Thorns. With Chicago Red Stars beating Utah Royals 1-0 and Washington Spirit earning a surprise win against North Carolina Courage, the final games of the season will determine who plays whom.

• Chelsea’s Millie Bright has withdrawn from the England squad for the Lionesses’s upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Portugal. Manchester City defender Gemma Bonner has been called up.

• ESPN have reported that US Soccer have made an approach to Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro about the US Women’s National Team top job. Montemurro is said to have expressed an interest in the role but has been blocked from interviewing for the position by Arsenal, having signed a long term-contact extension in November.