Post by max23 on Sept 28, 2018 17:29:37 GMT -5
In what must be one of the more unusual giveaways by a football club, some UK football clubs are providing free sanitary products in the women's toilets:
Periods and football: Meet the fans campaigning for free sanitary products at stadiums
Periods and football are two things rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same sentence.
Still a taboo subject, many people will still ask - in 2018 - what periods have got to do with the sport.
But with more than a quarter of Premier League fans women, it has never been more relevant than it is now.
So, with that in mind, meet Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Mikaela McKinley - three Celtic fans behind the 'On The Ball' campaign to get free sanitary products in football grounds around the UK.
"I was at the football at the start of the year and noticed that sanitary products are locked up in machines, sanitary bins are not in every toilet, and it just isn't a priority for football clubs," 21-year-old politics student Erin tells BBC Sport. "Young girls often come to games with male relatives, and it is difficult for them to say 'Dad can I have £2 for the machine?'"
"One of our reasons for starting the campaign was to increase the visibility of female fans, because we are second on the agenda in football grounds."
"That's not to say we're made to feel unwelcome, but we aren't a priority to football clubs and we're really conscious of that."
Starting earlier this year with their own club, the On The Ball trio went to Celtic Park to ask them to provide free sanitary products at the stadium.
"We knew we had to be confident and not be too intimidated as three young women going into a male-dominated sphere," Erin says.
They were successful, and six more clubs in both Scottish and English football have followed suit including Kilmarnock, Tranmere Rovers and Barnsley.
On Saturday, their campaign went viral on social media when one football fan tweeted a picture of a basket full of sanitary towels and tampons at the latter's Oakwell stadium.
www.bbc.com/sport/football/45262541
Periods and football: Meet the fans campaigning for free sanitary products at stadiums
Periods and football are two things rarely, if ever, mentioned in the same sentence.
Still a taboo subject, many people will still ask - in 2018 - what periods have got to do with the sport.
But with more than a quarter of Premier League fans women, it has never been more relevant than it is now.
So, with that in mind, meet Orlaith Duffy, Erin Slaven and Mikaela McKinley - three Celtic fans behind the 'On The Ball' campaign to get free sanitary products in football grounds around the UK.
"I was at the football at the start of the year and noticed that sanitary products are locked up in machines, sanitary bins are not in every toilet, and it just isn't a priority for football clubs," 21-year-old politics student Erin tells BBC Sport. "Young girls often come to games with male relatives, and it is difficult for them to say 'Dad can I have £2 for the machine?'"
"One of our reasons for starting the campaign was to increase the visibility of female fans, because we are second on the agenda in football grounds."
"That's not to say we're made to feel unwelcome, but we aren't a priority to football clubs and we're really conscious of that."
Starting earlier this year with their own club, the On The Ball trio went to Celtic Park to ask them to provide free sanitary products at the stadium.
"We knew we had to be confident and not be too intimidated as three young women going into a male-dominated sphere," Erin says.
They were successful, and six more clubs in both Scottish and English football have followed suit including Kilmarnock, Tranmere Rovers and Barnsley.
On Saturday, their campaign went viral on social media when one football fan tweeted a picture of a basket full of sanitary towels and tampons at the latter's Oakwell stadium.
www.bbc.com/sport/football/45262541