Many people meet good friends for life through football. But Rachel O’Sullivan and Sophie Downey became life partners, with their footballing journey starting at the London 2012 Olympics. To this day it accounts for a lot of their time, with nearly 350,000 miles travelled, more than 1,000 games covered and a staggering 37 countries visited.
They form the dynamic duo Girls on the Ball (GOTB), a great example of women thriving in the industry, as illustrated by Rachel and Sophie’s work with the #getonside campaign last year. One day a month, GOTB showcased someone trying to make it in the game.
“#getonside are looking at how to provide more equity in the game,” Rachel told LK. “In the women’s game, networking is brilliant. There are so many women working in football who have had to work so hard, really graft and break through glass ceilings. They’re not just creating the path, they’re also turning around and giving a helping hand to those behind them.”
Last year’s joyous final set a European Championship record for a men’s or women’s game with an attendance of 87,192. Meanwhile, the FA Women’s Super League (FAWSL) recorded a 227% increase in attendances last season. The FAWSL is the most followed women’s football league in the world, with 1.55 million fans across all platforms. This growth is pretty inspirational for two women who didn’t have a clue where to start.
“We initially thought we would set up a women’s sports website,” said Rachel. “We quickly realised football was more than enough, as we just knew we wanted to cover women’s football.” Women’s sport coverage continues to flourish: compare 2023 with 2022 for example. In the first four months of of women’s sport, many of whom were newcomers.
Sophie didn’t quite fit in all school and football gave her a tribe to belong to
This is 18.9 million more than in January to April 2022. “The end goal would be that we’re not needed because so much coverage is out there,” said Rachel. “But what we do with GOTB is adapt and fi nd the gaps, so I do think there will always be a need for us. We would love to be the go-to platform for women’s football media, we’d love to be able to have people working for us and to give opportunities to people coming into the game.”
Falling in love
For happily married couple Sophie and Rachel, just like for Leah, Ella and JJ, football made its way into their lives at a young age. And with nothing forced or imposed on the women, their love for the game and each other continues to grow brighter.
“Sophie’s dad took her to see Chelsea play when she was six, and she can still remember walking up to the stadium and how it made her feel. Funnily enough, her dad was never really that into football, he just took her once and she fell in love with it,” said Rachel.
“Sophie felt she didn’t quite fit in at school and football gave her a tribe to belong to, while I just loved sport as a kid and football was always the sport I played. However there weren’t any girls’ teams for me to join which was quite frustrating, so I played whatever sport
I could – ping pong, basketball, gymnastics, athletics. But I was never discouraged from playing a sport. I would follow every sport at the Olympics and watch for as long as I was allowed.” For GOTB, the long game has always been their love of football and it truly has got their backs.
