Football, Safe Spaces, Inclusivity and Me by Hayley Bennett.
Photo Credit: Jeff Gilbert
In 2020 the Football Blacklist named me as one of the most influential Black people in football. They put on a fantastic virtual celebration and asked me to record an acceptance speech for the award. One of the things I said in this speech was “I really believe it’s not about us trying to get invited to other people’s tables, it’s about creating spaces of our own”. This is something I feel strongly about. Choosing to challenge, for me, is about challenging the status quo and turning it on its head to innovate and create new opportunities that are not inhibited by society’s expectations.
Ask anyone what they like about football and the majority of people will probably say something about how it brings people together. Not only have I met some of my best friends through football, but it is one of the most important bonds I hold with family members. In 2018 during the FIFA men’s World Cup all I wanted to do was find a space to watch football with my friends, but it was impossible to find somewhere that we would have all felt comfortable. Nutmegs was born out of that frustration – we wanted to create a physical space as well as a community where people felt included and welcome.
Our aims are simple:
To create inclusive, accessible and safe spaces with all women of colour and non-binary people of colour in mind.
To organise events and activities that celebrate and bring women of colour and non binary people of colour together through football
To use our collective voices to encourage other women of colour and non binary people of colour to experience football for the first time
My day job is working as a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant and I spend way too much time pushing away requests from organisations and people who are looking to “fix the women” or “fix the Black and Brown people” by creating interventions that force us to fit into the mould that was never created for us to thrive in. When it comes to my passion, football, I have seen this playing out in how people are looking to address lack of representation across the football world. When we started Nutmegs we wanted to create our own space and enable women are non-binary people of colour to take up space in football on their own terms.
Our original goal was to find venues to meet up and screen live football in inclusive venues. It seems so simple, but I could not find a single place that didn’t revolve around alcohol, or that was fully accessible. During the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Black Cultural Archives put on a screening of Jamaica v Brazil in the café area – this was amazing and as close as we have come so far. I am still looking for a regular space but licenses for venues to show football are for pubs by default.
Screening events has been logistically challenging because of this, so we have been working with football clubs and The FA to arrange tickets for groups of us to go to live games. Before the pandemic, we had meetups at Wembley Stadium, the London Stadium plus Kingsmeadow, the home of Chelsea Women. We have had people join to watch football for the first time and others come who don’t have any friends to watch football with.
We talk about things that matter to us that maybe others probably wouldn’t talk about when watching football. We have all expressed that we have been in spaces in football where we have felt the need to act a certain way or put up with things we were uncomfortable with. It has been really important for us to keep our online community @wearenutmegs on Instagram private so that we can have these conversations.
My biggest hope for Nutmegs is to build a close and thriving community where people feel seen. Being a football fan sometimes involves a performance of being a “lad” as that’s what so many people perceive being a football fan is. I don’t think we should have to meet certain stereotypes to be considered football fans. Nutmegs is a celebration of women and non-binary people of colour doing what we love, having fun and being ourselves.
Hayley Bennett is a multi-award-winning Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant and campaigner. Her passion for inclusion in sport led her to create Nutmegs, a football community for women of colour and non-binary people of colour. In 2020 she was named as one of the most influential Black people in football by the Football Blacklist.
Socials: personal - @hayleytvb , Nutmegs: @wearenutmegs