Dempster ‘slap’ ordeal

Dempster, who held a similar role at Motherwell from 2008 before moving on to Hibernian in 2014, has described how she was left shocked by the actions of a colleague during her early days in football adminstration. She later confronted the person and warned him never to do it again. Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Behind the Goals podcast, Dempster said: ‘My welcome to the first game in the boardroom was to have my backside slapped by somebody, really hard. ‘It was actually on the way to the boardroom.

It was a staff member, it wasn’t a director. ‘I was so shocked, I hardly did anything. Afterwards, I went back and said to him: “One time only,” type thing.’ Asked what it’s been like to find herself as one of the few women in a position of power in the Scottish men’s game, Dempster (pictured) added: ‘People would always focus on that in the past. ‘But visibility around the game is just wonderful, participation in the game is wonderful now, so I don’t really think about it. ‘I’ve always worked in male-dominated environments.’