Scots squad hope to turn up the heat in Cyprus tournament as First Minister Sturgeon unveils funding deal
SCOTLAND head coach Anna Signeul could call up English-born central defender Vaila Barsley to her squad for the four-game Cyprus Cup tournament. The players fly out tomorrow and Signeul is sweating on the fitness of Seattle Reign’s Rachel Corsie.
The central defender arrived in Aberdeen from the States yesterday nursing a calf injury and won’t join her Scotland team-mates on the Cyprus flight if she isn’t fit. Barsley, 29, is the captain of Swedish side Eskilstuna United and has never featured in a Scotland squad.
“We will have to make a decision on Saturday,” Signeul admitted at Hampden Park, where a funding package was announced to help her squad’s home-based players. The Swede also has the option of drafting in an extra full-back – but that would scupper her plan to experiment with a back three for at least one of the games in Cyprus.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, made the funding announcement at Hampden. The package will allow the home-based players the opportunity to train full time in the five months leading up to Euro 2017.
The funders – sportscotland, sponsors SSE and the Football Partnership – will pay the players in lieu of their salaries, and they will have their day jobs to return to when they come home from the championship in late July or early August.
Among those to benefit will be Glasgow City’s Gemma Fay, Leanne Ross and Jo Love, as well as Hibernian’s Joelle Murray and Kirsty Smith.
“The players have done tremendously well in qualifying for their first-ever major championship,” Sturgeon said.