Late flowering in Scotland
Recognition for the team of 1972 and high hopes for domestic game
Fame came late in the day for Rose Reilly, Scotland’s only World Cup winner – who was victorious when playing for Italy in 1984 – but the pioneer will complete a move from anonymity to centre stage when a play about her life travels her home nation in April.
The production of Rose is another indication of the belated flowering of the women’s game north of Hadrian’s Wall. Reilly, 65, has been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame and in January was made an MBE in The Queen’s New Year Honours List.
But as a player she was banned for life by the Scottish FA for pursuing a professional career overseas and only last year did she receive her cap for representing Scotland in their first international, in 1972. The decades-long delay was because the SFA refused to recognise the match as women’s football was banned in Scotland until 1974.
Long after the ban was lifted misogynistic attitudes persisted. As recently as 2013 a well-known media figure described the sport as “a turgid spectacle” and suggested Motherwell’s Fir Park home should be “torched to cleanse the stadium after it played host to women’s football – face it folks, nobody cares.”
However, those comments met strong criticism and in recent years there has been a change in attitude. Government pressure and funding has helped – First Minister Nicola Sturgeon presented Reilly and colleagues with their cap – but the main driver has been the performances of Rose’s successors.
Last summer Scotland’s women became the first Scots team of either gender to reach a World Cup since 1998. This followed on from being the first to reach a European Championship finals, in 2017, since the men in 1996.
Success has created a surge in support. In May a record 18,555 watched at Hampden Park as Shelley Kerr’s team beat Jamaica.
Scottish men’s football is dominated by the Old Firm, their support founded on centuries-old religious rivalry. Protestants affiliate with Rangers, Catholics with Celtic. But in the women’s game the team that has held sway for more than a decade is an independent non-partisan side. Glasgow City, founded in 1998 by players Laura Montgomery and Carol Anne Stewart, who are still involved, have won the last 13 titles.
For years, frustrated by the slow progress of the Scottish game, they looked covetously south, only for the FA to rebuff their plea to join the WSL. Now, though, they will finally have competition at home from the Old Firm.
Both Celtic and Rangers have been around for more than a decade but their sole silverware has been the League Cup won by Celtic in 2010. Hibernian, from Edinburgh, have been Glasgow City’s main rivals in recent years.
Rangers, who first fielded a women’s team in 2008, have gone full-time and are intent on making an impact. Former Liverpool and Rangers defender Gregory Vignal has been appointed joint head coach with Malky Thomson, with 15 players released and a new squad recruited. Among the arrivals are goalkeeper Jenna Fife from Hibs and Kirsten Reilly from WSL’s Bristol City.
There have also been the eye-catching arrivals of Canadian-born Venezuela international Sonia O’Neill from Fleury 91, in France, and 29-year-old forward Bala Devi, who has scored 52 goals in 58 internationals and becomes the first professional Indian female footballer.
Celtic, who tried to sign the young Reilly in the 1960s, only to withdraw their offer when they realised she was a girl, founded their women’s team in 2007. The club seemed happy to let it tick modestly over until the humiliation of a 9-0 defeat by Hibernian in the 2018 League Cup Final seemed to prompt a re-think. They have also gone full-time and appointed Fran Alonso, a former coach to Lewes women and previously on the senior staff at Everton and Southampton men.
The Spaniard will not have to wait long to gauge his squad’s ability: they start the campaign on February 23
As recently as 2013 a well-known media figure suggested Motherwell’s Fir Park home should be “torched to cleanse the stadium after it played host to women’s football”
against Glasgow City. The champions were surprisingly beaten 4-1 by Celtic last season, their only league defeat, so will be keen to reaffirm their standing at home. Coached by former Aberdeen striker Scott Booth they need to find form swiftly ahead of a demanding European Champions League quarterfinal against Wolfsburg.
Rangers open against promoted Hearts, another club showing signs of greater commitment. The other four clubs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League are Hibs, runners-up for the last five seasons but in a state of flux after losing several players and coach Grant Scott, fellow Edinburgh club Spartans, Motherwell and Forfar Framlington. Six of the eight have new coaches, with Booth and Spartans’ Debbi McCulloch – the league’s one female coach – the survivors.
The personnel changes are illustrative of what would appear to be a game on the cusp of major development. There is speculation that a strategic review of the women’s game will recommend the men’s Scottish Premier Football League takes over running the SWPL. Not everyone will welcome this but greater resources are needed. The 10-0 win over Motherwell with which Glasgow City sealed last season’s title was played on a public park with facilities more akin to Sunday League than a national league.
“Just won a league title in a public park at a sports centre,” tweeted Scotland international Hayley Lauder. “Not how I envisaged the game in 2019.”