As the heated battle for the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 championship ramped up, Heineken delivered on its promise of becoming the most inclusive sponsor in football. The brewer is took over East London’s iconic Truman Brewery to celebrate the final and encourage all fans to show their support for the women’s game at the Heineken Greener Bar.
The launch of the Heineken Greener Bar had legends from the world of Women’s football – Alex Scott, Emma Hayes, Chelcee Grimes and Anouk Hoogendijk . They will be sharing their point of view on how the women’s game is on the rise.
English football legend and broadcaster, Alex Scott, said: “Turnout for the EUROs this year has been incredible, and it’s been fantastic to see the outpouring of support up and down the country. While there is still a lot of work to do to make football truly inclusive and at every level, we can say that we’ve made huge progress this year.”
Singer, songwriter, television presenter, and footballer, Chelcee Grimes said: “It’s great to have spaces like Heineken’s Greener Bar open over the final weekend to promote the message of women’s football and act as a fun space for all fans to come together and celebrate the beautiful game. When I was growing up there weren’t any cool activations around women’s football that would get me excited for big occasions like this… how times are changing!”
This event marked the launch of the Greener Bar which is now open to all football fans across the weekend. Football fans were able to catch a live set from DJ and host of BBC introducing Dance on Radio 1, Jaguar, and watched the final match on a huge outdoor screen, and took part in a newly created Football Pop Quiz. Better yet, refreshments came courtesy of Heineken’s sustainable Greener Bar pop-up, so fans enjoyed the footie without leaving a large footprint. But the festivities served another important purpose, coming as part of Heineken’s ongoing efforts to tackle gender bias in football.
Heineken called on all football fans to become the 12th Woman for the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 this summer. An allyship t-shirt launched by Harry Redknapp, AJ Odudu, Jermaine Jenas, Karen Carney and Ellie Taylor takes aim at gender bias in the footballing phrasebook and is available for £12 on Amazon. All proceeds from the t-shirt are donated to the not-for-profit organisation Women in Football.
Heineken also masterminded the Fresher Football website in a move to correct gender bias in football stats. The brewer intercepted online searches by buying key AdWords around popular football questions, making sure people saw answers representative of both the men’s and women’s games – celebrating the achievements of both equally. Since its launch, the website was viewed by more than half a million people.
