Hashtag United’s story has been told before. A football team founded by a popular Fifa YouTuber, drawing mammoth followings on their amateur content before taking the plunge into non-league football. Their men’s team has been promoted twice in four seasons and their digital popularity has continued to soar.
In 2020, Hashtag United looked to form a women’s team, eventually securing a merger with fourth-tier AFC Basildon after founder and CEO Spencer Owen tweeted asking if any non-league sides in Essex wanted support after watching the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
“I think that wasn’t just me. That was happening across the board and we started to see the beginnings of a revolution,” Owen tells i. “I felt ‘we’ve got to be at the heart of this, this is what we’re about as a club, we want to stand for progressive inclusivity and we have to have a women’s team.”
Hashtag’s expansion has adopted the same ethos as the men’s side, with the closeness to supporters brought about by their online content promoting the team to wide audiences.
Fans who want to engage with the club can, through former club captain Alex Bailess’ YouTube channel, get behind-the-scenes access to what life is like in the fourth tier.
There are stories like Christie Hale, the 30-year-old second-choice goalkeeper who only started playing football after being inspired by the Lionesses, or Sammy Rowland, who has scored 29 and assisted 11 in 813 minutes of football this season.
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They take on Championship side Coventry United in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Sunday, and the impact of increased Cup prize money is already being felt by clubs.
“I did some maths on it,” Owen adds. “If we got to this round last year, we would’ve made £2,500 – it’s going to cost us more than that in the coach and hotel alone to play this game. This year we’ve made £28,000 at this point which is more than eleven times that. It’s very welcome.”
This is the round at which top-flight sides enter the cup, and while Hashtag have not managed to draw one of the bigger names, it’s still a moment to savour and a potential upset remains on the cards.
Bailess tells i: “I’m not going to lie, we did want to draw a WSL team, but when we drew Coventry we thought this is still a massive, massive game but it doesn’t feel a hundred miles out of reach – until this week when they’ve signed lots of new players on loan!
“We’re such a close-knit team that I think that is what could get us through this round. I’m sure there’ll be some karaoke and some good food on the coach, hopefully not many late nights and we’ll see how we get on.
“We’ve seen it happen before, so it is possible. This is what football’s all about.”
Owen is bullish about the potential growth of the women’s game in England, but with the likes of Norwich City and Queens Park Rangers being below Hashtag in the pyramid, he wants to lay a challenge at the bigger clubs’ door.
“I like to say to the ‘big’ clubs, the ones that we’re beating regularly, Premier League teams, Championship teams, who have way more money than us: do more in women’s football. It’s not good enough.
“We are beating teams whose men’s teams have millions of pounds to spend by double figures. It shouldn’t be happening. I know how much we’re spending and I know they can afford it.”
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