Levelling the playing field... literally

Former fashion model Karen Dobres on the women's football revolution at Lewes FC, the world's first club to pay players equally, while offering Prosecco on tap and breast-feeding facilities at their new £750,000 ground

- By Jane Warren

THERE is Prosecco on tap alongside the beer in the bar, a dedicated breastfeeding space on match days, and staff include the former coach of the Afghan women’s national team — who helped her players flee to safety in Australia when the Taliban seized power in 2021. Welcome to Lewes Football Club, also known as Equality FC, which in 2017 became the first — and so far only — football club in the world to pay its male and female players equally.

At a time when the women’s game is experiencing exponential growth — evidenced in the Lionesses’ second successive triumph at the European Championships last week, and in recent record viewing figures across Women’s Super League tournaments — this East Sussex club is at the forefront of a revolution in the beautiful game.

Far from extracting resources from the men’s side, its groundbreaking commitment to gender parity has had a ripple effect that’s benefitted everyone — from the wave of sponsors drawn to its progressive ideals to the spectacular £750,000 sunken amphitheatre of a pitch, glowing green beneath you.

As a groundsman mows the turf, surrounded by the undulating hills of the South Downs, I drink in the inspiring view with Karen Dobres, 57, whose fascinating book on transforming this small club into a fabulous community resource garnering international attention, has just been published.

“I think of it as an imperfect utopia,” she says, surveying the breathtaking pitch — a level playing field both literally and metaphorically — which was recently voted British Football’s Greatest Ground by away fans, beating Anfield, home of Liverpool FC, and Manchester United’s Old Trafford.

Funds for its 2022 construction came from a Football Association grant specifically honouring Lewes FC’s groundbreaking work on equality.