Spare us the faint praise of Scots’ glorious failure
A NATION obsessed with sectarianism, Scotland has never had much of an issue with sexist attitudes to women’s football. Denied the blanket coverage granted to a failing men’s game, Glasgow City’s efforts in the Champions League are granted a brief burst of indulgence once or twice a year. That’s pretty much it. It was right and proper, then, that Anna Signeul’s team were lauded for reaching their first ever major finals. Euro 2017 games were broadcast live by Channel Four. BBC Scotland gave the event biglicks. Newspapers finally carried proper match reports. But if women’s football craves genuine parity with the men’s game, then spare us the patronising nonsense which followed the latest glorious failure by a Scottish national team. In need of a two-goal triumph over a fancied Spain side in their final game, the women’s team notched an unexpected win. But fell one goal short of qualification for the next stage. Clare Balding took to Twitter to express sympathy. The First Minister of Scotland praised a ‘massive achievement’. The captain Gemma Fay tweeted of a ‘cruel but beautiful’ game. But Signeul’s team are not on the flight home because of what happened against Spain. They’re on the way home because they lost 6-0 to England in their opening game. And followed that by losing 2-1 to Portugal — the lowest ranked team in the tournament. Give them this. Unlike the men’s team they actually got there. But if Gordon Strachan produced results like that he wouldn’t be flying home from Holland. They’d be carting his head back on a silver platter.