Equality and inclusion in football is now at an all-time high, with Molineux witnessing a more diverse crowd than has ever been seen before – but that has not always been the case.
Throughout One Pack Week 2024, five Wolves supporters from a cross-section of backgrounds have discussed how their differences have not always made them feel welcome in football, but how – thankfully – times are changing. Although there is still a long way to go until the beautiful game truly is a safe space for all.
Wolves Women winger Destiney Toussaint, disability men’s first-team captain Daz James and supporters David, a member of the LGBTQ+ community, and father and son duo Mahesh and Kian, who are of south Asian heritage, have shared the challenges, issues and experiences they’ve had to overcome to just play football or even support their beloved club at Molineux.
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Mahesh: “I’ve been supporting Wolves since the backend of the 1970s and Kian has been supporting Wolves since he was born. I grew up in Tipton and most of my mates supported West Brom, but there were about three of us who decided we wanted to be different, so we supported Wolves. I first started coming to Molineux in the late 80s, but I didn’t have a proper season ticket until 1997, which I had until 2015 because I couldn’t come to as many matches because we had three kids at home – two girls, who are 15 and 12, and Kian who is eight.”
David: “It’s 50 years this month since I came to my first ever Wolves game. I’m now in the Stan Cullis Stand, but my first ever game was on the South Bank and a 3-1 win against Arsenal, who had Bob Wilson in goal. It’s been a long time.”
Daz: “I’m a massive Wolves fan and have supported the club since 1988 and the Sherpa Van Trophy year when my dad brought me down to a league game which I watched from the South Bank. Everyone knows my story where I was sitting in the crowd at the Cardiff game and I saw the lads step out onto the pitch for the first time, and I just wanted to get involved. That was six years ago and now I find myself as captain of the men’s team. It’s just a massive honour.”
Destiney: “I started out playing just with my family because there was no other option for me. As I got older, I would play at school but just casually with the boys as there wasn’t a girls’ team. I didn’t manage to find my first team until I was about 16 years old. I played at college and after that it was not too bad.”
Daz: “Playing mainstream football as a kid growing up was a bit of a challenge as I was trying to keep up with able bodied people. But I tried it nevertheless. I would never try to let things beat me, but then, I kind of gave up the hope of continuing any kind of footballing career until I found Wolves Foundation. I would never have been able to continue to play football without the Foundation.”
Destiney: “It was a little bit more difficult for me when I was growing up compared to what the younger girls now have had to go through. When I was at school, because I was literally the only girl who was playing it, I always felt the other girls would look at me a different kind of way, just because I was playing football. Sometimes I felt like I was one of the boys and the other girls saw me as one of the boys, so I tried to make a conscious decision that I would play football with the boys at break time and would then join up with my girl mates in the afternoons.”
Mahesh: “When I was growing up, most of my friends were white, but I remember one time my friend said to me, ‘Some people don’t really like you’, and it came as a complete shock to me because I had never experienced that. They started talking to me about the National Front, but I had no idea that there were these people out there. As I got older, I used to walk the streets and there would be racist comments, a car would come and the window would wind down and they’d say, ‘F off back to where you came from’, but I never really let it affect me because I know most people aren’t like that. I think back then, people would act racist just to fit in, but then when you got to know them, they were the complete opposite and were good people. What I found worse was the abuse the white girls would get just for walking with me. Although they would get these horrible comments, they would always stick up for me.”
David: “Whenever I hear homophobic chanting, it riles me up. I think, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And I just want them to stop. I always feel that if you’re going to support your club, do it with a bit of class. You don’t need to be using racist chants or sexist chants or homophobic chants or any of that. You can still be passionate, you can still have banter, and you can still support your club and be proud to be a Wolves supporter without any of that nonsense. But people don’t think sometimes. Someone is saying it next to them and they just follow suit and join in without thinking it through, or they just think it’s banter, but it’s not.”
Destiney: “I wouldn’t say I’ve had any issues in terms of skin colour, personally. I have friends who've had issues and I’ve heard of certain things that have been unacceptable and not very nice to hear, but personally, I’ve not really experienced anything. In terms of my gender, I experienced things when I was younger in terms of feeling awkward when I was playing with the boys. If I would try and tag along with the boys’ football team, it was always a bit awkward as I was the only girl. Also, before they knew I could play, the boys didn’t want me to play and there would be comments about having a girl on the team, things like, ‘Why is she playing?’ But I’ve been quite fortunate with the experiences I’ve had across my career in football.”
Mahesh: “Since I became a season ticket holder, I think I’ve only heard one racist comment at Molineux. That was when we played Crystal Palace in the play-off second leg in 1998. I was sat in the stands and one guy just started to kick off with the stewards. I don’t know what had happened to make him go for the steward, but he was having a right go at him and started calling him loads of racist names for no reason. That’s probably the only time I’ve experienced it first-hand. I’ve been sat in the South Bank and you hear swear words and you hear this, that and the other, but I can’t recall any other racist comments that have been directed at someone.”
David: “The people who take part in offensive chants or say homophobic comments don’t think how it’s affecting other Wolves fans sat near them. They don’t know the sexuality of other fans and how their words will be hurting others. There might be a young 15-year-old kid who hasn’t come out but is sat in the stands and thinks, ‘Wolves is my place. Wolves is a safe place. Molineux is my home.’ Then they hear a comment and realise all this talk of 'One Pack' maybe isn’t as true as they thought it was. They then feel Wolves isn’t the place for them and they don’t want to come back to Molineux again. I don’t want any of that – not if I can help it.”
We're all unique. We're all Wolves.
