Ticket giveaway for girls

HUDDERSFIELD Town want to attract more women to matches ... and will start by giving away 30 tickets for the Chelsea clash.

The club has teamed up with Huddersfield Town Supporters Association (HTSA) to encourage more women to attend live games.

Women At The Game is the brainchild of seriously ill Jacqui Forster who used to work for Supporters Direct which helps supporters gain influence in the running of their clubs and since the year 2000 have helped establish more than 200 supporters trusts in the UK.

Huddersfield Town has agreed to organise block seating in the Fantastic Media Lower Tier for the visit of Chelsea.

The aim of the initiative is to give women a taste of live football, fostering dialogue and relationships among women who are already seasoned match-goers.

Since January of this year several non-league and Football League clubs have taken Jacqui’s message to heart, hosting their own Women At The Game events.

Jacqui, an Altrincham FC fan, was diagnosed with terminal cancer in February 2015 and used funds friends raised to get the project up and running.

“I simply want to enable more women to feel happy going to watch sport, particularly men’s football,” she said.

“I think meeting other women before the game in a non-threatening venue, like a café, entering the ground together and wherever possible spending the match with their new-found friends will make more women of all backgrounds, ethnicity and religion likely to give going to watch the footie a go.

“This is really about making friends with other women who support the same club.”

For the Tuesday, December 12, clash against Premier League champions Chelsea (kick-off 8pm), Town have provided tickets for 30 women and girls to sit together at the John Smith’s Stadium.

The HTSA – whose co-chair Emily Broome is one of the driving forces behind the event – has distributed these tickets to civic society groups, with a particular focus on attracting women and girls who are looking for others to go with them to matches.

The Supporters Group will also be running a pre-match social event for attendees on the evening.

James Chisem, secretary of the HTSA said: “HTSA are committed to extending the benefits of the Premier League to every corner of our community.

“Women and girls are still under-represented on the terraces and we’re keen to do whatever we can to redress that imbalance, as are the club.

“Jacqui’s Women at the Game initiative has been successful in the Football League and non-league and we have no doubt it will be successful in the Premier League as well.