Access & Ambition

Scout Stuart, England

My name is Scout, I am a filmmaker and lifelong Manchester United fan currently playing casual, 7-a-side football for Newground United, a grassroots team based in South Manchester.

I grew up in the 90s, a stone’s throw from Old Trafford with a family of Manchester United fans, so I was ‘born’ a Red. I was very young when I started playing football with my older brother and the boys in my neighbourhood. I won a competition at a Bobby Charlton Soccer School when I was about 9 , then went into a couple of girls development squads. I was quite shy and increasingly felt like I did not fit into these set-ups. I had grown up playing street football and not really thinking about my sex/gender. But now I was with girls and aware that there was no United’s women team, and that it was extremely unlikely any of us would ever become professional. So at 14, with those feelings, coupled with other growing interests (music, films, art) I just stopped playing.

In my late 20s, I was living in London and was invited to a casual women-in-film kick-about. I had not kicked a ball for 15 years, so my fitness and all the positional nous was lacking, but the kind of ineffable stuff like passing accuracy and a decent touch was surprisingly still ‘there’. It reintroduced me to the joy of playing for fun.

As things started to open up after the first Covid lockdown, I was back living in Manchester and joined Manchester Laces, a new grassroots team. As much as I enjoyed the training, playing 11-a-side was not my cup of tea in the end, so I joined Newground in 2022 to play more casually.

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?

Most of the players from Newground make an appearance. They were taken around South Manchester, in parks and in Whalley Range, where we play in the Alternative Football League.

I like the post-game, sweaty-haired, orange slices for smiles, last bits of dying summer sun on our faces group photo. I also like the photo where we are attempting to duck from the rain. We don’t have any big breaks in our league, so you can see the changing of the seasons across the photos, as we play through them all.

You can see our Poundland “football star” trophy. It is a little satirical because we don’t subscribe to the idea of “star players” or egos. We award it to the player(s) of the match - win, lose or draw - and everyone will end up getting it at some point. It perfectly sums up the ethos of our club, that it is about encouraging each person and making sure we all have a good time.

In general, what I like showing is our kit. We chose the shirt with the collective input of the whole team. It was important for us to have LGBT+ representation on our shirt, so we added a progress flag to the sleeve. We also decided that players should wear any black shorts they like rather than assigning a set pair, because often shorts cut for women are shorter and tighter and not everyone feels like that fits their gender expression. I think being in a team of people who are sensitive to these things is important. Our Newground logo was designed by one of our players, Lucy, and she also made our sponsorship with Size happen.

What impact has football and Newground had on you?

I have a day job that is an all-the-time job, which means I can have trouble switching off because I have a tendency to spend a lot of time overthinking. But when I play football I am in the moment and genuinely only thinking about the next few minutes. It is a liberating feeling that has had an impact on my general wellbeing and reiterated the importance of exercise for mental health as well as physical health.

Our co-captain Fran recently got married and when one of our players, Lorna, did her DJ set, we all changed into our kits and got on stage behind the decks. That kind of togetherness encapsulated what it feels like to be a part of Newground.

What are the opportunities for women and girls to play in your community?

It is undeniably more accessible to play football as a woman than it has ever been in my lifetime. At a small sided level, there is the Alternative Football League where Newground play and some casual 5-a-side leagues where you can just turn up. For 11-a-side you have the classic Sunday League setups, with women’s teams playing in the FA affiliated leagues. But there are also more inclusive leagues opening up like the North West Community Football League, which is an open gender league.

In Manchester, it has been good to see an increase in tournaments being held by other local teams like Happy Somedays and Rain On Me and football charities like Football for Food Banks.

What ambitions do you have for the future?

My only ambition is to keep enjoying playing football; to continue until it is no longer fun. Maybe longer term I would like to find a way to combine football with film or another artistic practice. I think there are some interesting overlaps between football management and film directing.

What is the future for women's football in England? What would you like to change?

The success of the England Women’s team has been huge for visibility and for increasing participation at grassroots level and in encouraging more female fans. It has been quite emotional for me to see football that is being played, analysed, and supported by women become progressively normalised and respected, but there are still mountains to move before we arrive at true equality in football, much like in society in general.

On a practical, slightly selfish level, I would like to see the Manchester United Women’s team move from the implausibly hard to get to Leigh Sports Village to a stadium closer to Old Trafford.