Female football stars brawl after Pride as player flirts with rival’s girlfriend
A brawl between female football stars after a Pride in London parade started when one of the players flirted with another’s girlfriend, a court has heard.
Arsenal and Millwall footballers were drinking at a west London pub following the parade last June when the fight broke out, reported the Sun.
Millwall’s Frankie Strugnell flirted with teammate Leah Jones, whose girlfriend, Arsenal and England international Jemma Rose, lost her temper, jurors at Southwark Crown Court were told.
In a 2014 interview with the club’s website, left-back Strugnell said her favourite film was My Best Friend’s Girl.
Crystal Palace player-coach Anna Rains needed five stitches to close a wound on her eyebrow after she was punched in the face as the scuffle spilled outside onto the street.
Jackie Wilson, 23, a friend of the group who doesn’t play football, denied hitting Rains at Montagu Pyke, a pub in Soho, saying someone else threw the punch over her right shoulder.
Wilson told the court: “I shouted at Frankie: ‘You’re a f***ing idiot. I knew it would be your fault if we got thrown out tonight.’”
She cried in the dock as she was found not guilty of actual bodily harm on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for Women’s Super League Arsenal Ladies said Rose, 25, who is still with the club, and Miss Jones have since broken up.
