'I've been a victim of sexism in football'

Nicola Hudson, who works at Southport FC, has told Newsbeat she regularly receives sexist comments.

The Football Association is calling on fans to report sexist abuse at games after being shown disturbing scenes of women officials and staff being subjected to obscene chants.

"The main issue appears to be that any comment directed towards a woman is viewed by men as banter," says Nicola.

"Women involved in the game are expected to just take it on our chins."

The FA insists it is doing more to tackle the issue, but there remains just six women on the 122-strong FA council and only one board member, Heather Rabbatts.

Nicola, who is the public address announcer at the Conference Premier side, says there has always been a culture of sexism in football.

"I get comments like, 'Women only want to be involved in football to pull footballers'."

Nicola says she gave up trying to fight the sexist comments because she realised in order to have a successful career in football, it was easier to just take the abuse.

"There is a deep running male-orientated culture that runs through the game."

In recent years, there have been a number of high-profile sexism cases. Richard Keys and Andy Grey left Sky after making sexist comments, while Premier League boss Richard Scudamore apologised over sexist emails, although he wasn't punished.

Nicola says she often finds it difficult to have her opinions on football heard, and is on the receiving end of comments like "girls don't know anything about football" or "do you even know the offside rule?"

She says it's frustrating when people assume that because she's female, she's only interested in women's football.

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