HAVE you heard the one about the club where the women get paid as much as the men?
And where they get bigger crowds, too?
Only, of course, at Lewes FC it is not a joke. It is a statement of intent.
Lewes’ Dripping Pan is a venue for hope and sporting ambition.
A place where they dream big — for Champions League football, alongside a berth in the EFL.
More crucially, a club which believes it has to stand for something bigger than just the next 90 minutes.
Not virtue-signalling. Not political correctness. But changing things for the better — and making MORE money as a result.
Maggie Murphy, the club’s general manager, happily admits Lewes has “the most expensive tickets in women’s football in the UK”.
She said: “Two years ago, we doubled ticket prices — and attendances. Prices doubled again and so did attendances.
“We think the supporters are proud to say they are women’s football fans.”
Those supporters certainly seemed more than proud.
Lewes’ men’s team, established in 1885, play in the Isthmian Premier League, three tiers below League Two. The women currently stand sixth in the Championship, one step below the Super League.
With salaries of up to £250 per week, these are mainly part-time players. No less committed.
Women’s boss Fran Alonso spent six years working at Southampton and then Everton, under Mauricio Pochettino and Ronald Koeman.
Alonso explained: “The Premier League is the best competition in the world but why this club exists is bigger than any other club.
“This is a very ambitious club but doing it in a different way is very important. We are contributing to changing the world, in a humble way, and being a big part in the growth of the women’s game.”
Standing on the terraces of the Philcox Stand, Pete Bull and Clare Gorman-Strong agreed, pointing to a mum breast-feeding ten yards away from them, that things are different at Lewes.
Pete said: “I watch both teams but prefer to watch the women. The quality of football is much better than the men.
“We’ve created a whole raft of new fans who might not have watched football before, young girls and women.”
Clare added: “It is a challenge now that, as we grow, the club tries to keep this feeling about things.”
Charlie Dobres, director, PA announcer, and utterly focused on making The Rooks a force on both a football and social level, is one of the key pushers of the self-declared Equality FC.
Dobres said: “Six of us were elected to the board saying this was the direction we wanted to go in.
“We wanted to be pioneers — but because it is the right thing to do.
“And it has worked out how we hoped it would, increasing our turnover and driving both the men’s and women’s teams forward.”
Just £40 per year buys you a share in the club, which now has more than 1,600 owners.
Of course, some of the club’s longest-serving members were not entirely convinced of the path.
Roger Feltham, the club’s groundsman for 35 years, admitted: “I didn’t like it, I couldn’t accept it.
“But the longer things have gone on — as I’ve seen what has happened and the way so many people have bought into what we are doing here — the easier it was for me to understand that it has to happen, or the club would die.”
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