More than a match: How women's football is building communities across Europe

It is 19:00 on a cold October night in Oslo, and a band of Vålerenga fans have taken up their seats at their home stadium early to see their team take on Wolfsburg. Blue and red flags flutter in the air as the fans crowd together in the stands to ensure they make as much noise as possible.

As the team step out onto the pitch for a warm-up, they burst into cheers, and a loud rendition of the club anthem, Vålerenga Kerke, rings around the stadium as if in one voice. Known as the Østblokka, this group of diehard fans know exactly the impact that a passionate, coordinated community can have on a game.

This picture was much the same for every one of Vålerenga's games in the UEFA Women's Champions League this year – home or away. For the team's last match against Bayern München, this small but mighty travelling band of supporters made their presence known, despite the 1,500km journey it took to get there. At the end of the match, the team came over to thank them, this group of individuals all bound together by the love of their small but rapidly growing club.

Norway might be the setting for the Women's Champions League final on Saturday 23 May, but Norwegian fans do not have the monopoly on dedicated fan communities getting involved in the sport.

Across Europe, different groups have built up and grown organically around the women's game. The way the sport brings people together is palpable – whole youth football teams come to games together, groups of friends all wear the same customised clothing, multiple families all sit together to share the matchday experience with one another.

Vålerenga fans were out in full force during their UEFA Women's Champions League campaignUEFA via Getty Images

Building travelling fanbases

At the 2025 Women's Champions League final in Lisbon, the feeling of community the match brought to the city was palpable. There were fans in team colours everywhere, fostering a sense of one giant street party.

Lisbon's famous 'pink street' was packed with Arsenal fans singing in the sunshine, while Barcelona shirts and red-blue painted faces gathered near the seafront. Fans from both teams mingled easily with one another, and people who had never met before made firm friends over their shared common interest – their beloved club.

The influx of Barcelona fans in particular should have come as no surprise. As a regular fixture in Women's Champions League finals of recent years, Barcelona fan groups have become adept at ensuring vocal support no matter the location.

Almogàvers, a dedicated supporters' group named after medieval Catalan soldiers, has made it its mission in recent years to organise travel from Barcelona to final destinations including Eindhoven, Bilbao and Lisbon, while smaller fan groups across Catalonia follow their lead to organise other group trips. The result is an incredibly passionate and loud fanbase for the Blaugrana no matter the venue, and a genuinely welcoming and exciting space for fans of the women's team to feel that they are a part of.

Connected beyond borders

When it comes to drumming up local support, Barcelona are setting the standard for the women's game, but there are plenty of other ways fans have found to connect over their favourite teams, even if they're not geographically near them.

Kristin Schrumpf, a Bayern München fan based in New Jersey in the United States, is one such fan. A 2015 trip to London, when she watched a game in a pub with a Bayern München fan group, sparked an idea for an international supporters' group for the team – and the Bayern Red Ladies were born.

"To form an official Bayern München fan club, you need 11 members, and to reach that I had to sign my mother up, who had never watched a game," she says. "And now we have over 300 members from 40-something different countries." The Red Ladies follow both the women's and men's teams and count members in countries as far flung as Mozambique, Cuba and Pakistan, as well as dotted all over Europe and the United States.

"I heard about two women in Argentina who didn't know each other, who just started talking about Bayern," Schrumpf says. "One of them said, 'I'm in a group called the Red Ladies, you should join', and the other person was like 'no way, I'm in the Red Ladies!' It's mind-blowing, two women in a country I've never even been to are members of my club and found each other."

Having members all over the world means that Red Ladies members regularly organise meet-ups in each of their local areas, while also transcending borders and time zones with virtual watch parties. This feeling of being united by a common passion, regardless of background or geography, pervades the entire women's game from top to bottom.

FC Bayern München fans during the UEFA Women's Champions League semi-finals UEFA via Getty Images

A game for everyone

Women's football is also a sport that has found a huge amount of support from the LGBTQ+ community.

It makes sense for a sport with so many high-profile openly gay athletes; at UEFA Women's EURO 2025, it was estimated there were over 70 members of the LGBTQ+ community playing in the tournament. That kind of visibility has meant women's football has developed a well-deserved inclusive reputation.

Whether a travelling fan on a coach to an away game; a supporter based far away from their team watching games with friends online; or sat in a bar with newly-made friends watching a match – whoever it is, women's football provides a home and a community that is truly welcoming to everyone.

"I don't care if your first game was yesterday," says Schrumpf. "And I don't care if you've been a fan for decades. We're all here for the same purpose – to root for this team. If you're a Bayern fan, you're a Bayern fan. Welcome. Big hugs."