FA bosses refused to play fair

Football associations and federations around the world did their best to stop women playing organised football for a large part of the 20th century.

In England, the FA banned clubs from letting women’s teams play at their grounds, acting after 53,000 people turned up to watch a women’s game at Everton’s Goodison Park.

The SFA issued a similar ban in 1947.

The FA relented in July 1971, the same year Europe’s governing body Uefa told their members to take control of women’s football in their territories.

The motion passed by 31 votes to 1 – with the SFA the only member to vote against.