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Disappointments over misogyny and diversity
Jhooti has also been enjoying the lack of tribalism at this World Cup, with fans of opposing teams sitting next to each other in stadiums rather than being kept apart.
“I understand the rivalries but I hope that doesn’t come into women’s football,” says Jhooti. “People think, if I really want to belong, I have to boo the others and shout at them. This is why I don’t have a favourite football club. I am not going to be one of those people where I can’t like this team because I like that team. I just want a good game of football – and if our team play shit, we don’t deserve to win.”
Many fans of men’s football say that intense rivalries between clubs and their supporters is one of the things they love most about the game. But at extreme levels, of course, it can lead to violence and unleash misogyny and domestic abuse.
“Sometimes I think that I wouldn’t want to go and watch this or that team because I don’t like the environment and the atmosphere for women isn’t good,” says Jhooti.
Many women happily attend men’s football matches every weekend and on the whole attitudes are thought to have improved markedly from the darkest days of hooliganism. But Jhooti has experienced the kinds of shocking abuse that might make some fans never want to go again. She gets through it by telling herself that it’s probably just empty bravado.
“The types of people that would terrify me any other day of the week, in a football context, somehow I know how to confront them – to go to them, speak to them and find that bit of connection.
“When Man United played Arsenal in the FA Cup final in Wales [in 2005], my Arsenal friend gave me a ticket and an Arsenal shirt to wear. Afterwards I was going to Manchester to meet my husband, so I rocked up on a Manchester train with this Arsenal shirt on.
“I walked on and this guy said: ‘Are you f***ing taking the piss, love? If you get on this train, we’re gonna rape you.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘Oh come on, no you’re not.’ Of course nobody touched me. The guy who said that, he’s probably a mild-mannered accountant on a Monday morning.
“One of my greatest mentors in life would go and watch West Ham, and the stuff that would be coming out of his mouth while he was singing all of these songs – he doesn’t even know what he’s saying half the time.
“It’s just become the thing: this is what you do when you go to watch football. This is what you do when you go to a man’s game.”
Can the threat of sexism – as well as racism and homophobia – realistically be reduced in our national sport?
“Yes, but the crowd have got to do that. Self policing is a very good thing,” she says.
“When I was in Germany for the [2006] World Cup, there’d be guys going around doing their World War Two bomber moves. Someone just turned around and said: ‘What the f*** are you doing?’
“I think it’s a tiny minority who like that. Most people want to go along and not worry that there might be a fight.”
Many football fans are upset about another news story hanging over the sport in England right now: Manchester United’s imminent decision on whether to keep employing Mason Greenwood or terminate his contract.
The young forward was due to stand trial in November charged with attempted rape, assault, and coercive and controlling behaviour. But the Crown Prosecution Service said in February that the prosecution would be discontinued following “the withdrawal of key witnesses” and new material coming to light that “meant there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.
Greenwood has always denied the allegations and said he was “relieved that this matter is now over” when the charges were dropped.
But Manchester United have said that the player’s future at the club remains the “subject of intensive internal deliberation” and delayed a decision on whether his contract would be terminated until their women’s team had been consulted.
A protest group, Female Fans Against Greenwood’s Return, argues that retaining the player would be telling women “that we don’t matter“, and the television presenter Rachel Riley has said she will stop supporting the team if he is not sacked.
Jhooti fears that in situations like this, financial and sporting concerns are too often placed ahead of a need for football to show what cannot be tolerated.
“It’s not the first time. Look at past cases: in the end, if this player can make you money, that’s always what counts.
“There’s outrage and then everybody just forgets. It fizzles out. As long as he scores goals, they don’t care. Why do we expect it to be any different this time?”
She also worries about the lack of racial diversity in the England squad. The Lionesses played all-white teams in every match of their European campaign last year, and the team remains predominantly white now.
This reflects a wider trend. Less than 10 per cent of top-level female footballers are from diverse ethnic backgrounds, according to the Professional Footballers Association, compared with 43 per cent of male players in the Premier League.
Jhooti, who has previously spoken of the racist bullying she suffered while playing for Millwall, does not blame the England coach, Sarina Wiegman, who she highly admires. But she says: “I must admit: when I look at the England team, it doesn’t look like any team that I ever played with.
“A great thing for me about women’s football was its diversity. It’s super great where we’re at, but is this the acceptable face of women’s football: pretty, blonde-haired, pony-tailed?
“While making progress in one way, have we also gone back 40 years? Now have we got to go back again and say: ‘Look, Black women also play football’?”
The way that women’s football is marketed has long been an issue, she says.
“When I was professional, Fulham wanted us to do a photo shoot, dressing us up. I like wearing saris and looking elegant, that’s one side of me. The other side is shorts and muddy knees. But they were fixated on this image: ‘These women play football, but look, they’re women as well and they wear dresses.’ That used to piss me off.”
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