Lewes FC: The club fighting for financial equality
Ever since Brighton and Hove Albion’s promotion to the Premier League back in May, East Sussex has become a haven for football fans across the country. Week in, week out thousands of people flock to the region to watch The Seagulls take on the likes of giants Manchester United and Chelsea at the Amex Stadium. At the time of writing, the club sits 8th in the league and with this being their first season in the top division for around 35 years, its progress is there for all to see. However, Brighton’s success on the pitch isn’t the only footballing history being made within the perimeters of Sussex. Drive five miles up the road via the M27 and you’ll reach the quaint yet revolutionary town of Lewes.
Every year tens of thousands of people descend to the area to revel in its annual bonfire night celebrations. This year around 60,000 people were in attendance with effigies of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, amongst others, lighting up the streets. With events like this the town is forever pushing boundaries, but its innovativeness doesn’t stop there.
As of July 12, Lewes FC made footballing history by becoming the first semi-professional or professional team to offer equal pay for both its men and women footballers. As well as equal pay, the scheme, dubbed ‘Equality FC’, ensures that the playing budgets across the men’s and women’s teams are the same. Charlie Dobres, a board member, says this move towards complete equality at the club was the obvious next step. “We’ve done it here because at this club women were already playing in the same stadium as men which is incredibly unusual in the women’s game,” he explains. “They’ve already got the same training facilities and we wanted to bring it up to full parity and pay was the last thing to do.”
Lewes’ Women’s team was founded by director Jacquie Agnew 15 years ago. She has recently left her role at the club but was instrumental in its move towards equality. At their most recent home league game against Charlton Athletic Women a plaque was unveiled for the departing Jacquie who modestly said, “she hopes she’s done a little bit to help women’s football.” The outgoing director has certainly done more than a little bit; she leaves behind a legacy like no other. As player Tammy Waine puts it, she’s created a one club mentality: “To be part of something which is so revolutionary is a really special thing and something that they [the club] deserve because the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes is phenomenal here,” she explains. “It’s a massive confidence boost for us and the women’s section as a whole to know that the club is supporting us 100% and not only that but now it’s completely equal with the men it’s a really special feeling.”
The club isn’t just unique in the sense that if offers equal pay, it incorporates the community in an unconventionally rare way: it’s fan owned. “We love doing pioneering stuff at this club, the fact that we’re already fan owned makes us very unusual in this country, some people have partial fan ownership but we’re 100% fan owned,” Charlie Dobres explains. He also dismisses claims that the move is a publicity stunt proclaiming that any criticisms about the scheme just makes them stronger. “Those people who are inevitably and naturally criticising or saying, ‘how is that going to work’, we love it because it’s a chance for us to keep getting our point across,” Dobres says. “Before we launched this we had conversations with sponsorship's and we found that there was a lot of interest in it so what we decided to do was instead of waiting to build up a sponsorship fund we just went ahead and did it,” he explains. “We’ve had some directors who guaranteed backstops and the extra funding required, very much with the point of view that we would attract more sponsorship and we already have.” Despite the exterior funds, Dobres doesn’t underestimate the fans’ contributions. “For us the most important thing is the ownership's, anybody can buy a share in Lewes FC online or on the website throughout the world,” he explains. “What we’re really trying to drive is to increase ownership from the current 1,200 to 12,000.”
This isn’t the first time that Lewes FC has fought for equality and it won’t be the last. At their home league match against Charlton on November 12, the club introduced their latest equality campaign called ‘Unlock the Gate’. The scheme celebrated 100 years since women first got the vote. Speaking before his side kicked off, manager of Lewes Women John Donoghue, said: “What we’re trying to do is to get as many people, even if they’re not football supporters, down just to support the equality side of things.” He added, “Whether you support football or not it would be helpful to come along and support what we’re trying to do here.”
Fans dressed as suffragettes lined the stands and children, wearing Equality FC t-shirts filled the stadium. The atmosphere was electric and everywhere you looked there was a smile on someone’s face, despite the freezing cold temperatures. At half time onlookers were stunned into silence as former AFC Bournemouth photographer, and the first transgender woman in the Premier League, Sophie Cook, gave a heartfelt speech about equality and her story. "The idea that the men's and women's teams both get the same pay [at Lewes FC], it's ground breaking and it's something that we need to get throughout the game... because until everyone is equal nobody will be."
The game attracted a crowd of 407 people. Not a lot you might think, but compare that to Arsenal Women’s game against Sunderland on the same day and you’d be amazed. The Gunners could only attract a crowd of 400. A surprising statistic considering Lewes Women are two tiers below Arsenal. With a population of only 17,000, the sheer size of Lewes may be smaller compared to other towns, but its football club’s courage to fight adversity head on is certainly growing bigger by the day.
