'If we don't act now it might be too late'

Vivianne Miedema voices concern over the growing amount of fans abusing players in women's game

- Tom Garry

Vivianne Miedema made her senior debut as a 15-year-old in the Netherlands, and 13 and a half years and more than 300 goals later there are few players better qualified to comment on the evolution of the women's game than the Manchester City forward.

She is deeply concerned by the growing number of incidents of so-called fans abusing players.

"We're always saying we're proud in the women's game that we're very inclusive but somehow that is starting to slip away a bit," Miedema says. "If we don't act really strongly right now then it might be too late.

"As a player and advocate for women's football, I've always been one of the ones shouting that we need to wave our own path in women's football and we need to be really careful in how we want to grow and develop. Because the easiest thing is to change completely into men's football. But if we are so proud of the environment we've created, we need to be really, really careful in the next steps we're making."

Miedema issues that warning in a candid interview at City's training ground, 48 hours after Liverpool's Taylor Hinds was subjected to a "inappropriate comment" from a spectator at Arsenal on Sunday, and just over a month after her teammate Khadija "Bunny" Shaw was subjected to racist and misogynistic abuse, which remains under investigation by Greater Manchester police.