Cash in on our success
Success should encourage investment
Lee Alexander hopes Scotland’s qualification for next summer’s World Cup will lead to more investment in the women’s game.
The Glasgow City goalkeeper helped the national side reach the showpiece tournament earlier this month, becoming the first Scottish side to reach a finals since the men’s team opened France 98 against Brazil.
Now the women’s team are heading to France themselves for the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
That’s back-to-back tournaments the team have qualified for after reaching the Euros in 2017 and it provides a massive opportunity to raise their profile.
A record crowd of 4098 took in Scotland’s last home qualifier against Switzerland and the number of registered female players has almost doubled in the last five years to 12,500.
But Alexander reckons more support must be given to the women’s game to help it continue to thrive.
The 26-year-old said: “The World Cup is a new thing for the women’s team, so we just hope things can only get better for the country in terms of what this could do to really push us on.
“Not just participation in women’s football, but investment.
“I think we’ve made a statement now that we are here to stay – it wasn’t just a one-off at the Euros.
“This is our time to shine and I’d like to think there would be more sponsorship as well.
“We want everyone to back us and hope that we can get as many supporters over to France as possible.
“I’d like us all to just enjoy the journey because it’s something that hasn’t happened in a long time.
“Obviously everyone is glued to their TV screens when the men’s World Cup is on, so hopefully this will be something all of Scotland can celebrate.
“It would be nice to have a sense of national pride where it doesn’t make any difference that we are women.”
Ahead of their participation in the 2017 Euros, the team received vital funding from sportscotland, SSE and the Scottish Football Partnership.
This enabled home-based players in full-time employment or education to focus all their efforts on preparing for the tournament.
At the time, seven of the squad benefited from that.
Of the 23-woman squad that qualified for the World Cup, only four are not involved in full-time football.
“Whether something like that will happen again, I’m not sure,” said Alexander, the former Calderglen High School pupil.
“A lot of us benefited from it, so if the SFA could do anything to help make sure everyone is in the best shape for the finals, it would make a big difference.”
This is our time to shine and I’d like to think there would be more sponsorship as well