Misogynists 0, Superfan 1 – meet an Arsenal legend
Maria Petri defied her Greek parents to support a club she now views as her family, as Sophie Penney discovers
Each time Arsenal superfan Maria Petri opens her fridge, she has the memories of her 80th birthday occasion shared at the club staring back.
For nine months, Petri has kept the icing of the sponge cake with a picture of herself in the cool conditions needed to preserve its arrangement. It was presented on the pitch at a match by Joe Montemurro, the Arsenal Women’s manager. As mementos go, it is not your traditional fare.
Just looking at Petri, you can tell Arsenal means everything to her. When we meet, she is decked out in different shades of red. Memorabilia and programmes from every game she has been to pile high in her house. “I don’t know how many thousands of games I’ve been to,” she says. “There isn’t anyone else who goes to home, away, Europe, ladies and under-23s games.” I ask her how she has time for anything else. “I don’t!” she cries.
The players, staff and supporters all know Petri. She has been attending women’s matches for 13 years and the men’s since the 1960s. She attends games alone as she does not have any immediate relations and never married. The club are her family.
Petri’s obsession with Arsenal began in 1950. She was 11, and washing dishes, when the club’s name kept coming up on the radio. She was intrigued, did her research, and from then on was hooked.
She could not play football because of asthma, but she was determined to watch. There was a stumbling block: her Greek parents would not allow it. “You’re not going to football, football is not for girls,” they would say. “I was very angry,” Petri says. “But I had to keep it all to myself.”
Petri made sure she went to university away from home, so that she could start going to men’s matches. Her mother felt watching the women’s games was “less worthy”. It was only after she passed away in 2006 that Petri felt comfortable to attend.
Inside the stadiums, Petri’s loud chants were often met with equally misogynistic remarks. Spectators would tell her to “get back in the kitchen”.
She responded by making up her own chants: “You’ll never keep me quiet!”
Her songs have become legendary. Almost every story she tells comes accompanied with a chant that she has made up. They are not all in English: she speaks Greek, Italian, German, French, Spanish and English, having worked as a languages teacher.
When Petri first started watching the women’s game, she was the only one chanting. She remembers when there were only 100 fans at matches. “It has all changed,” she says. Almost 2,500 people came to Arsenal’s most recent Women’s Super League game. She has made it her mission to help spread the love of the women’s game, urging the home fans to join in her chants at Meadow Park. She also sponsors the captain, Kim Little, and defender Louise Quinn. Petri wants the women’s game to grow, and knows how. Her usual smiley disposition switches when she talks about the changes she wants made. “They need to stop making unnecessary clashes with the men’s and women’s games,” she says. “I also want to see the girls play at the Emirates, so more people can come and see them.” She wants to make her voice heard but modern technology is stopping her. “I don’t know who to write to because everybody has emails and websites and I don’t,” she says. “I haven’t been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century yet.” The one thing she is worried about is losing contact with the players. “At the end of the game the ladies come over, they have selfies with the fans and autographs. Whereas the men, we can’t get near them. I’m frightened that as the women’s game grows, that might happen.” I ask how many more years she will keep coming to games to see if her fears are realised. “Oh, for ever,” she grins. “Arsenal till I die… and beyond!”