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Everton Stage Full Birth Scene As Women Footballers Go Unhinged At World Sevens Football

Women’s Football

World Sevens Football is a new women’s seven-a-side series launched in 2025, built around the idea that football can be quicker, shorter and more entertainment-led without losing its competitive edge.

It was founded by Jennifer Mackesy, a philanthropist and minority owner of Chelsea Women and Gotham FC, and Justin Fishkin, with former Chelsea Women executive Adrian Jacob brought in as Head of Football before the first event.

The project also has a player advisory council featuring former internationals including Tobin Heath, Kelley O’Hara, Anita Asante, Laura Georges and Caroline Seger.

The idea behind it is pretty simple: create a separate showpiece format for the women’s game that gives clubs and players another platform, more prize money and a version of football built for highlights.

Mackesy has described it as a way to elevate the women’s game, grow players’ personal brands and create more economic opportunity.

The series launched with major backing, including a reported $100 million investment over five years and a $5 million prize pool per event.

The format is designed to look different from normal 11-a-side football.

Games are 7v7, played on a smaller pitch, with two 15-minute halves, rolling substitutions and no offside rule.

This year’s London edition is being played at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium from May 28 to May 30, with eight clubs involved: Chelsea, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, Everton, London City Lionesses, West Ham and Leicester City.

The format naturally invites chaos. Fewer players means more space, more one-v-ones, more shots, more mistakes and far less time for a match to settle into anything normal.

But the football itself has only been half the story. The real reason World Sevens has taken over the timeline is because the whole thing feels like a fever dream.

Football walkouts are usually predictable: players follow the officials out, line up, shake hands and get on with it. World Sevens, though, managed to make even the entrance feel ridiculous.

During their walkouts, two of the Chelsea players, Buurmaan and Nusken, formed a human bowling ball, while the others stood in front of them as the bowling pins.

Ellie Carpenter bowled the human bowling ball and then completed the strike as the last pin, Beever-Jones, spun around before falling down.

That’s not all for Chelsea, in another one of their walkouts, all of the starting 7 carried their manager, Sonia Bompastor, over their heads and out onto the pitch.

Everton then pushed the bit even further.

Katja Snoeijs walks out with a ball under her shirt, holding her back and pretending as if she is pregnant and her water broke.

Courtney Brosnan, Inma Gabarro, Kelly Gago, Rosa van Gool then carry Snoeijs further up the pitch, when Toni Payne and Yuka Momiki enter as medics.

Toni Payne delivers the baby, the ball, and all players begin celebrating with pink cloths on the bench, portraying that it is a girl.

This was not all for Everton either; in their game against United, the players carried a casket towards the pitch, as if heading towards a funeral.

When they set the casket down, Hannah Blundell, the Manchester United loanee, came out of it, removing her United shirt and unveiling the Everton jersey underneath as they all celebrated.

Spurs also joined in, having a boxing match walkout against West Ham.

Molly Bartri entered first, as a ring girl, holding the round 1 card, followed by the “boxers” Olivia Holdt and Cathinka Tandberg.

They began to fight once the round started, with Olivia Holdt soon “knocking out” Tandberg and winning the round.

Even the referees got involved in these strange but amusing walkouts.

All 4 referees walked out, 1 wearing goalkeeper gloves while the others all carried a ball, running straight towards the penalty box for a penalty shootout of their own.

Two referees converted their penalties before the third one eventually missed, looking embarrassed about the penalty miss.

This was not all, however, in another match, the referees were wearing a teal uniform, something that also matched what the DJ was wearing.

Initially, one of the referees walked out onto the pitch, looking confused and acting as if she was trying to find the other referees.

She then proceeds to point towards the DJ, where the other referees stand up and start dancing along with the DJ, before making their way onto the pitch themselves.

If the walkouts didn’t satisfy your quench of the weird, World Sevens had plenty of strange moments left.

Later in Chelsea’s game against Leicester City, the Blues went viral again.

With Chelsea leading 2-1 and the match still going on, Wieke Kaptein was spotted casually eating everyone’s favorite candy.

It was still a live football broadcast, Chelsea were still in the middle of an actual match, and Kaptein was sitting there in full kit snacking on Skittles like she was watching a game at the park.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Martin Ho also seemed to understand the assignment, as he became part of the madness without seemingly doing anything at all.

Martin Ho was dressed in a deliberately ridiculous, costume-like outfit on the touchline: a bright light-blue fluffy cowboy-style hat, a dark navy sleeveless vest or gilet over a long-sleeved white top, matching navy trousers, and white trainers.

The chaos was not contained only to the walkouts and the sidelines, but it also spread to the pitch.

In their game vs Manchester United, Spurs goalkeeper Sophie Jackson stepped up to take a penalty, but sent it flying high and wide, with Spurs eventually losing 7-2 to Manchester United.

However, after the match, Sophie Jackson retook her penalty against her own teammates, scoring it into the top bins, and then doing a knee slide as all the spurs players ran behind her to celebrate.

Somehow, that was the charm of the whole thing. World Sevens did not feel over-produced or desperate to be taken seriously; it felt loose, playful and happy to let the weird bits breathe.

The football was still competitive, but the tournament had a different, fresher, lighter energy, far more willing to have fun with itself.

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