"Given football is the national game and such a huge part of our cultural life, women should have a bigger part in it. They under-stand and accept I am not a Millwall fan, and if they thought I was trying to be one I am sure they would resent it. Yes, there are still some fans who come to Millwall and let football down, but no more than in any other club, and now possibly less. We arrested a couple of people for racial abuse recently but that's an isolated incident."She is involved in football's "Kick It Out" campaign and is hoping to get Millwall to the first stage of accreditation shortly, the club having been praised by the campaign chairman, Lord Ousley. But how has she been received by the "old boys' club" of football, in which there is only a handful of female executives?There was the unnamed chairman of another club who seemed to have a fixation with her legs during a one-way conversation, but she is charismatic enough to handle their egos, and their prejudices. Did he have a problem with that? This rather large man then said no, he hadn't."What the majority of fans want to know is whether you care about the club.
"The gaffer - got to get used to this football language - has a fascinating approach. He is involved in yoga and meditation, which seems so totally counter-intuitive in terms of football managers, but he has this steeliness about him that is allied to a real calm. So far, touch wood, it seems to be working, particularly with the younger players."She admits there have been some difficult meetings at fans' forums, "but on the whole they have been really welcoming. Their main concern seems to be whether we are going to change their club, and the extent to which I belong to that club and the extent to which I don't as I am not a fan."I remember one of them coming up to me and asking whether I had anything against white working-class people and I said no, my dad was born in Peckham, a white working-class boy [her father became an army officer and later a draughtsman], but he had the very good sense to marry a Jamaican woman. That was one of the reasons we took the decision we did with Nigel, a lovely man. They say this is the beautiful game but sometimes it can be very cruel."She is hopeful Spackman's former assistant, Willie Donachie, who is acting as caretaker-manager, can pull things round.
They had a home win against Bournemouth last Saturday but face a difficult game at Swansea today. My job is to pull these elements together."Rabbatts came in as Millwall were relegated from the Championship. Less than three months into the season the Lions hover uncomfortably in the League One drop zone, and already she has had to take some tough decisions. At a Lambeth Council riddled with fraud and corruption, whose "Loony Left" image she eradicated, she became known as The Terminator after 1,000 redundancies.At Millwall, there has been only one The manager.