Women's football has been on a tear lately, with England's Lionesses showing that as a nation, we can actually be good at football, with sterling results in the 2023 World Cup, and the 2025 Euros. It isn't just the national side that's making waves. In East London, a bunch of creatives have banded together to create something special, on their own terms. The result is Hamster Ham FC, a mainstay of East London's Super 5 League, named for an animal that is "cute but powerful and inclusive".
Captain Maria Maleh Moore and striker Annie Alvin, a Swedish expat, met playing football before deciding to launch their own firm in 2019. "Girls don't really get the same opportunities or encouragement to carry on with football after you become a teenager," Maleh, 34 says. "But I love football, so we wanted to invest our time and start our own team." They reached out to friends, looking for women who wanted to kick a ball about, but would be happy with keeping it fairly casual.
From the start, Maleh Moore, an art director and graphic designer, and Alvin a set designer, knew they wanted to take a DIY approach to the team. They design and stitch the team's uniforms themselves, while defensive terror Lily Brown, a photographer who's worked on campaigns for New Balance and Levi's jeans, takes care of the snaps. She started playing for Hamsters in 2022. "With the excitement building around the women's Euros, I wanted to get involved," Brown says. "I played when I was younger and as soon as I went I wondered why I hadn't played for so long. There was such a sense of Community."
“Once a week we just forget about our lives and have fun. It's the best therapy, and leagues like this keep the community together”
If they're strict with the kit, the team line-up is all-inclusive. Women, trans, and non-binary people aged 19 to 40+ have taken to the 3G turf for the Hamsters, although the current line up – there are about 10 women in rotation, with an extended community of semi-retired friends to draw upon if needed – is roughly aged from 23 to mid-30s. As well as creatives, there are pharmacists and even lawyers on the roster. If you get the vibe, you're in. "We rock up and we have a good time," Maleh Moore says, adding that the team will frequently head to the pub to watch whatever match happens to be on. "There's no egos," Brown says. "Once a week we just forget about our lives and have fun. It's the best therapy, and leagues like this keep the community together."
“With us, you can turn up, not know anyone, and feel safe.”
The team's enjoyed real success in its seven-year run, travelling to Lisbon in 2023 to take part in an international tournament, and more recently playing at the Chelsea and Fulham grounds in West London. Not that they let themselves get swept up in the hype. "It doesn't matter what the score is," says Maleh Moore. Most of the team have taken turns in goal, and there was even one match where every single player scored. "We do have an appreciation of improvement, but we try for a balance of strategy, skills, and fun. It's about coming together and having a good time," she adds.
At present, the team doesn't have a home base. Usually, they rock up to their Tuesday night matches, get stuck in, and that's that. Training hours, Maleh Moore explains, would not only require more of a time commitment from the players, but a financial one, too. "Renting a space and heating it in winter isn't cheap," she says. The truth is, there simply isn't enough money being fed into grassroots women's sports, despite the likes of running and indoor bouldering enjoying a flurry of brand investment in recent years. Maleh Moore, who is also a runner, suggests that brands might not recognise the upshot of sponsoring a football team in the same way they might sponsoring a runner. "There seems to be a knowledge gap in the industry on how to uplift these communities," she says. "You do see women's grassroots teams being featured in magazines etc., but what's needed is Investment."
“There seems to be a knowledge gap in the industry on how to uplift these communities”
Men's football, of course, doesn't seem to have that issue. But the differences run deeper than that. "Our league has been great at prioritising respect and safety," Maleh Moore says. "We don't talk shit. We aren't abusive. We start each game introducing our names and pronouns." The women of Hamster Ham, Maleh Moore says, treat the pitch as a release. But, when they've played mixed games, she's felt the men "tend to go onto the pitch to moan. I've found that quite funny. With us, you can turn up, not know anyone, and feel safe."
