United Women put an end to mass selfies & autographs after games - it's time

From now on, only a handful of pre-selected young fans will be invited to meet and have a picture with players in a major change.

Manchester United players will no longer stop for fans to take pictures and sign and autographs after games, either inside Leigh Sports Village at the final whistle, or outside the stadium afterwards.

It is a momentous shift aimed at tackling the growing problems associated with the practice, as well as prioritising post-match recovery for the players. Instead, fans aged 16 and under will be able to enter a ballot for special entry to a dedicated ‘hub’, housed in a building opposite, with those who are successful placed at the back of the next queue in a bid to promote fairness.

It will be rolled out for the first time when United host Tottenham in the WSL on Sunday.

The initial response has largely been positive, welcoming the much-needed control, although some have issue with the solution being exclusively for children.

The women’s football landscape in England has changed enormously over the last five years alone and things that were once taken for granted as the norm are already becoming relics of the past.

For years, fans being able to meet and chat with players, take pictures and have them sign things afterwards was almost ingrained within the women’s game, even at the highest level.

It was initially made possible by small crowd sizes, with players able to show their gratitude and appreciation for the loyal and concentrated fanbase supporting the women’s game by directly engaging with people on an individual level, particularly in the club game. Many would come to know their ‘regulars’ and it fed into the idea that the WSL was like a ‘family’.

Even with growth in interest and popularity, usually tied into England’s showings at major tournaments – 2015, 2017 and 2019 all had increasingly notable positive ripple knock-on effects for club sides – that close-knit culture remained not only possible but in many ways an attraction.

Covid-19, the abandonment of the 2019/20 season, and a whole subsequent campaign behind closed doors damaged WSL attendances. United brought in just over 2,000 fans for a home game against Bristol City five days into 2020, but a similar fixture against Birmingham in January 2022 just barely reached four figures. What really put the WSL onto its current trajectory was England winning Euro 2022, followed by also reaching the World Cup final 12 months later.

But with the rapidly growing numbers of people looking for, and in some cases demanding, post-game pictures and autographs, the last two seasons have seen that particular aspect of matchday culture very quickly become unsustainable, unpleasant and downright unsafe.

Ultimately, these are professional sportspeople whose only obligation is to play football to the best of their ability. A match ticket entitles the holder to nothing more than 90 minutes of watching it.

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Starting from the summer of 2022, it was increasingly common at Leigh Sports Village to see fans – usually young, but not exclusively – gather at the sides of the pitch several minutes before the end of games in order to claim a good position for post-match selfies. At Leigh, standing pitchside along the advertising hoardings blocks the view of those seated in the first couple of rows set a few feet further back. When that was identified as a problem, public addresses asked people not to gather until after the final whistle, instead prompting slow edging onto and down the steps in stoppage time, and then surging to the front in a mad rush the second the whistle was heard.

It became a bug bear of many that some would also increasingly bring home-made signs asking for shirts or boots, having occasionally seen players give them away after matches, and quite literally begging for a piece of the action. One former player at a different WSL club revealed privately to me during the 2022/23 season their exasperation at the increasingly entitled behaviour of fans.

In September 2023, the aftermath of an England match at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland descended into chaos when a group of fans began chanting “get off the bus” at players waiting to leave. It was a shocking twist and incredibly disrespectful when many had already spent time inside the stadium after the final whistle engaging with supporters.

“Players shouldn't be made to feel bad about not getting round everyone because it can be difficult,” England defender Esme Morgan remarked a few weeks later. She was with Manchester City at the time and the club had also taken steps to address issues by introducing ‘Autograph Alley’, with stewards randomly handing out wristbands for a few fans to gain entry to a meet and greet.

It was around the same time that Mary Earps responded to a fan on social media after they had complained about her not stopping to meet their daughter following an away game at Everton. That day, Mary had spent longer than any other United player trying to engage with as many fans as she possibly could. “If that’s the expectation, we’re always going to fall short, and I think the emphasis on it needs to switch now,” she later said of the incident.

After one game at Leigh last season, a pair of young fans screamed at ‘number 22’ to come over to them. When Nikita Parris, because that is her name even if those kids hadn’t bothered to learn it, was moving down the line at the side of the pitch but didn’t reach them, they became louder and increasingly irate. On other occasions, fans have been heard asking a player who had come over to speak to go and get someone else. It’s not unheard of for a player to be the subject of verbal abuse or nasty comments if they miss interacting with a fan, which happened to Alessia Russo outside LSV at least once during her United days, while objects have also been thrown – including at Ella Toone – in an unfathomable bid to try and grab a player’s attention. There is a famous example of that happening to Barcelona’s Ingrid Syrstad Engen, hit in the face with a shirt thrown by a fan expecting her to sign it. She just gave the person a knowing look at and threw it back.

Fans pushing other fans out of the way to try and reach players has been commonplace. An alarming development also came when young fans, outrageously sometimes even encouraged by parents and not just acting on juvenile impulse, began running after players in cars as they drove away. It understandably terrified the players it happened to, especially when it was dark, in case they accidentally hit anyone. At some point last season, the fencing on the players’ car park became shrouded in tall black sheeting to prevent fans from gathering there pre or post-game. Throughout the last few seasons, security levels have been upped to protect players.

Once upon a time, the impassable fencing outside LSV that creates a walkway between the players’ entrance and the players’ car park – or coaches for away teams – wasn’t necessary.

It’s a completely different world now.

When United hosted Liverpool at LSV in the WSL in September 2019, it was the club’s first top flight home game on a weekend – the previous home encounter against Arsenal had taken place on a Monday night. There were still more than 2,800 people in attendance at Leigh that day. But the scenes after the final whistle inside and outside the stadium would be unrecognisable.

After manageable, calm and well-mannered pitchside greetings, nearly everybody went home. Only a few, maybe 20 or fewer continued to hang around the front of the stadium, waiting for one last glimpse of the players that day. It was good humoured and a relaxed, pleasant environment.

“I’ve signed this one already,” Earps, then brand new to United and far from the household name she later became, joked with a fan who handed her their programme after getting it autographed inside the stadium perhaps only half an hour earlier.

Players came out in dribs and drabs and no one swarmed all over them.

“Bye, guys,” Jackie Groenen said almost hesitantly, as she began to walk towards her car, but half turning back to check no one else was waiting for a picture.

They are nice memories for those lucky enough to have experienced it – and a few youngsters every week will still get to in a controlled way. But the reason those days must be consigned to the past is ultimately a positive one. The WSL and women’s football is thriving and thousands more people are coming to watch it every week. The game is evolving, which means fandom has to as well.

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