HER GAME TOO...WITH CHARLOTTE RIGBY

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Saturday's game is our dedicated Her Game Too fixture, here Charlotte shares her story

2025-03-06T19:00:00.000Z

HER GAME TOO...WITH CHARLOTTE RIGBY

Saturday's game is our dedicated Her Game Too fixture, here Charlotte shares her story

2025-03-06T19:00:00.000Z

Saturday's game is our dedicated Her Game Too fixture, here Charlotte shares her story

Lifelong Burnley fan, season ticket holder and Her Game Too ambassador Charlotte Rigby is looking forward to the Club’s dedicated International Women’s Day fixture when the Clarets take on Luton Town at Turf Moor.

A member of the Fan Advisory Board, Charlotte’s committed to use her role on the board and with Her Game Too to engage with the Club on ensuring the female fan experience is improved and engrained throughout the football club.

“I’m on the Fan Advisory Board and it was mentioned at the meetings how female fans were feeling and what sort of things we could take onboard to help with that.

“I’d seen Her Game Too on social media and it’s something that I’d been thinking about. So, I got in contact with the team there and asked if they had a Burnley ambassador. They said no so I thought I’ll put myself forward, as I’m happy to talk to people and with my position on the FAB, I thought it might help linking everybody together. I went for an interview process and met the team.

“I’d been an ambassador for about a year before anything really happened, at this point it was just a case of me talking to our female fans through my own social media, or them contacting Her Game Too. The Club weren’t too involved at this point it was more fan based.

“Then we had a Fan Advisory Board meeting where everything kind of came to a head and it sort of veered towards the female fan experience. I think it opened the board’s eyes into what the experience had been for some of the female fans and the ball got rolling from there really, the Club joined forces with Her Game Too.

“The board themselves made the approach, as they’d heard of the work Her Game Too were doing. What started off between me, the fans, and Her Game Too, the Club are now involved as well so it’s nice to see the progression in that way.”

As an ambassador Charlotte’s enjoyed joining a supportive community of female football fans from different clubs, helping share ideas and develop the aims & ambitions of Her Game Too.

“We have quarterly meetings; these give us a good idea of what’s happening in the organisation. We plan our dedicated fixtures, then we also have WhatsApp groups and a platform that’s dedicated to Her Game Too, so we can all support each other with our dedicated fixtures and producing content.

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“We have group leaders too, so as an ambassador it’s not all on me, there’s a lot of people there to support you. We all get in touch with each other, it’s a really nice, supportive community. You don’t ever feel like you’re on your own.”

All ambassadors are loyal supporters of their beloved clubs and Charlotte is well placed to represent Burnley, having travelled home and away cheering on the team for many years.

“It’s a family team, we’re all from Burnley and I’ve always supported the Club. Me, my sister, and my other siblings as well, went on with my nanna at first, and my dad.

“We’re season ticket holders and when we were kids, we started off in the Jimmy Mc family stand, then we moved over to the North Stand Upper, that must have been about ten years ago. We’ve been in the same seats for a number of years now! We do a lot of away trips with my dad, or if it’s on TV and we’re not there we all meet up and watch it together.”

Charlotte believes she has seen progress at the Club and is pleased with several of the female fan initiatives that have been implemented.

“I think we’re doing really well, especially in the home aspect. The sanitary products in the facilities, that’s something that’s relatively new that’s a really good step.

“The Safeguarding Stewards that were introduced this season is a nice thing to see as well.

“There’s more messaging around the ground too, which is helping to increase that feeling around the female fan experience.

“The idea is that in the future you won’t need these types of things, these organisations, because it will just be accepted that everybody comes to football and everybody watches football.

“I’d say what the Club do at home has really improved, what we could do a bit more on is the safety away but I’m aware that where we’re going and who is hosting has an impact on this.

“My sister and I tend to go together to away grounds that we’ve been to before. If it’s an away game anywhere we’ve not been before my dad comes as well, it’s just that extra bit of safety that you feel.

“Normally we’re going to stadiums where you can get a taxi from or you can get someone to pick you up from but with my dad we’ve been to Bournemouth, Southampton and Middlesbrough he’ll drive us we’ll stay overnight and it’s just that comfort of having somebody there. I’m not saying that something will happen but it’s just in the back of your mind.

“Maybe if the Club could look at groups that travel to away games or something. But I do know these things can depend on the host club and what’s doable.

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“What we’re doing at home though I feel has definitely improved and shown really good progress. I’d say the away fan experience could be looked at though.”

Whilst keen to explore more things that can be done with Her Game Too, Charlotte says it’s important that change needs to be organic.

“I think there’s so much we can do with the relationship. It’s really nice as I do feel like Burnley are taking it seriously. Speaking to the ownership at the fan board meetings and seeing how important this is to them; you can tell that they take it very seriously which is really encouraging to me for how we can go forward with it.

“In regard to the feelings around the female fan experience at Turf Moor, I think that’s something that’s going to have to happen naturally by having the messages on the LED boards throughout the game and not just keeping it to the one dedicated fixture. It needs to be something that’s just seen throughout the games anyway, that way it becomes accepted and as it becomes accepted, that feeling changes throughout the ground. I think that’s something that we can work towards, making sure that it’s continuous.

“People will feel more confident calling out negative behaviour then too, as more people will be on the side of the person calling it out.

“It’s that natural progression, we’ve seen it with other issues within football, racism, homophobia, and it’s become engrained in us that that is wrong, and it’s engrained in us to call it out, which is the right thing to do. I think if this is done in a similar way then it’s so much more natural and accepted by everybody.

“Also, with the women’s team it would be good to find a way to bring them home as they are far away. It’s definitely a long-term plan. I like watching the women’s team, but I don’t drive, so I can’t get to Leyland. It’s just about hopefully finding some way to move them in the long-term, somewhere that’s suitable for them and that matches what the league requires. Just making a conscious effort to bring them closer then we can all get involved in that.

“I know we see them at Turf Moor, which is fantastic, and we can’t do that every week for lots of different reasons, but I think the more we increase the exposure, that feeling of acceptance and inclusivity is just naturally going to grow.

“Rather than trying to force it, as people don’t like change, just trying to do things which are more natural. Messaging through the game so it goes in subconsciously, increasing the exposure and connection with the women’s team. Maybe having a video of female fans, with really powerful messages.

“I’d like to see it be done organically rather than just for one fixture and it be forgotten for twelve months, as that’s when people will start to push back. I just hope that I can see that imagery and signage throughout the season.”

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