The Complete Number 9 is an interview series where we ask authors nine questions about their book, the writing process and their football-writing influences.
Pitch Invasion: My story as a feminist on a Football Club board gives readers an insider's view of the quirky yet revolutionary culture at Lewes FC. From organising Suffragette flash mobs to introducing Prosecco on tap at the stadium, Karen Dobres brings to life her experiences at this fan-owned, debt-free, gender-equal club where everyone - from local supporters to pop stars - helps shape the future of the game
Photo © Zoe Birkbeck
What gave you the idea for the book?
The idea to write it all out came in a therapy session! I'd spent six years at Lewes FC, helping lead and drive the pioneering campaign by which the club introduced equal resources to its men's and women's teams. Having stepped down from the board at the end of 2022, I really needed to offload.
Going from hating football to becoming a football club director involved a lot of personal change and a huge intake of cultural and business information, as you might imagine. And because promoting and living gender equity in the traditionally male-dominated world of football was provocative, I had to be strategic about what I could and couldn't say, and how open and honest I could be. 'Pitch (or 'Bitch') Invasion' was my chance to get it all off my chest, and tell my own story as a woman, in the way I know best: by writing it all down.
I also felt that, together, we'd achieved something remarkable at our relatively small football club in our little corner of England, and that history deserved to be recorded by someone who was there and involved.
Finally, I wanted male football fans to gain an insight into what football might feel like for women; female football fans to enjoy a football story told from a non-playing woman's perspective; and, most importantly, female non-football fans to find something in the book that would introduce them to the game in a way that would resonate with their own experience - or lack of it.
How was the writing process?
Easy; cathartic; fun.
My main areas of work at the club had been about telling my story, and the story of the club, to women who didn't like football. These were Lewes FC's new market - I dubbed them 'unwelcome women'. Women had been made unwelcome via deliberate exclusion ('The Ban'), but were often unaware of this history, or even of the resulting male-coded nature of the game's systems and structures.
I'd given increasingly personal presentations for many groups and organisations, so had plenty of material to draw on.
I'd also introduced sponsors and partners to the club, created campaigns, and changed the ground and matchday experience, and led from the board on the club's 'Impact on the World'.
I loved bringing all these off-field aspects of football together under the unifying force of 'creating belonging', and explaining the obstacles and joy that my 'weird' endeavours brought - and the bridges I was able to create on the back of the amazing light and hope of 'Equality FC'.
What was your biggest influence whilst you were writing the book?
I think it was probably feminist, confessional writers. The 'squeaky trolley' kind whose columns I'd read in newspapers and magazines, who could turn an apparently small, everyday annoyance into a much larger cultural or political issue, writing through a more or less feminist lens.
The ones who made me laugh, who weren't too 'in your face', and to whom I could very much relate. I'd cite Viv Groskop, Caitlin Moran, Suzanne Moore, Zoe Williams, Hadley Freeman, Laura Bates, Tim Dowling. I'm also very inspired by writers like Mary Beard and Virginia Woolf. And Nick Hornby!
How did you first get published?
Well, let me tell you an unconventional story!
Whilst at Lewes FC, and as part of my mission to connect football with the wider culture and community, I created a writing competition for fans called 'The Rooker Prize'. The club is nicknamed 'The Rooks' and is 100% fan-owned, priding itself on it's democratic set-up.
The Rooker asks entrants to be unpublished and submit just the first 400 words of their novel or memoir ('cos everyone has a book in them right? But do they have the time and confidence to write the whole thing? No!).
When I stepped down, with more time to run the Rooker properly, I formed a partnership with Hachette UK, based on our aligned values. I asked that in addition to the charity prize I already put forward, they offer the winner a money-can't -buy session with a top editor in their field.
Whilst accompanying the winner of the 2023 competition to her winner's session, I found myself telling a director at Hachette all about Equality FC and the journey I'd been on with it. She said 'someone should write a book about that'.
I explained that I was.
She said 'Have you got an agent?'
I said 'Why, do I need one?'
She kindly introduced me to an agent, and once we'd got the proposal together, we submitted it to various publishers. The one we eventually went with was actually an imprint of Hachette - Cassell at Octopus Books.
During my first 'interview' with my commissioning editor at Cassell, Trevor Davies, he asked whom I thought the book should be aimed at. I suggested 'Maybe at a bloke's head when he starts to bang on about football?'.
Trev laughed and I knew I'd found the right person to work with!
What advice would you offer other writers when writing gets hard?
Remember why you're doing it.
Take a break. Reflect on the mission, why you first started writing. Then get back to it!
What is your most memorable football experience?
It's between Tatiana 'Safe Hands' Saunders making a Guinness World Record at The Dripping Pan in Lewes v Liverpool by scoring the winner from her own goal....AND bringing an eight-feet high statue of eighteenth century female bisexual pirates to the Dripping Pan and placing it by the chip hut.
I love worlds colliding and then making absolute sense.
What was the last football book you read?
Honestly, I don't read that many football books, but I've met Khalida Popal a few times, and was very inspired by her memoir, My Beautiful Sisters: A Story of Courage, Hope and the Afghan Women’s Football Team. Talk about having obstacles in the way of being able to play. If you haven't read about the Afghan Women's team's life trials, give it a go.
What is a football book more people should read?
They should read British Football's Greatest Grounds: One Hundred Must See Football Venues by Mike Bayly. He asked away fans to vote on their favourite grounds across Britain and guess who's Number One?
The Dripping Pan in Lewes! My favourite pull-quote explaining why, is that 'you can eat hummus in the terraces and not be laughed at'!
You're welcome.
No, you really, really are welcome - everyone is, even well-behaved dogs!
What is your next football-writing project?
I've just written a piece for The Guardian on why women's football shouldn't have to copy a men's game that isn't working (provocative, I know, but how many men's clubs actually wash their faces, business-wise? Exactly).
And I'm just about to write a piece on leadership for Mindtools, using Lewes' radical decision to become the first pro or semi-pro club in the world to equalise playing budgets between men and women as my example.
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Pitch Invasion: My story as a feminist on a Football Club board is published by Cassell and is out now.