The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Can women’s game find a level playing field?
As the new Scottish Women’s Premier League season kicks off on Tayside, Michael Alexander looks at the rise of women’s football and the game’s future
When St Johnstone Women’s Football Club make the short journey along the A90 for the opening fixture of the SWPL2 against newly promoted Dundee United WFC tomorrow, the Premier League derby match has the potential to throw up divided loyalties for St Johnstone WFC general manager Steve Grossi whose family are lifelong supporters of the Dundee United men’s team.
While the Lochee-raised 52-yearold will of course be cheering on the Saints at the GA Engineering Arena, he is conscious that the match is an important indicator of how far the girls’ – and women’s game – has grown across Tayside, and he hopes to see further development and investment locally and nationally in the years ahead.
With Scotland qualifying for the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France this summer, and a clutch of Courier Country-raised players likely to be part of that squad, there’s no doubt the tournament is an opportunity to further raise the profile of the women’s game and inspire even more girls to lace up their boots.
But with women’s league football clubs still managed predominately by volunteers like Steve, and with crowds in Scotland often measured in the dozens rather than the thousands, can the women’s game ever truly hope to operate on a level playing field with men?
The potential for success has already been set high with role models like Lisa Evans, of Perth; Emma Mitchell, from Buckhaven (both formerly of St Johnstone Girls and now both of Arsenal); and Perth-raised Lana Cleland (formerly of Rangers and now of Italian Seria A side Fiorentina) making great careers for themselves.
They have all featured in the Scotland national team, and Steve thinks the opportunities for female players are greater than ever before with the standard of football on the rise.
At St Johnstone WFC, which was created out of a formal partnership between the long-established Jeanfield Swifts Ladies and the “very supportive” St Johnstone FC in January last year, Steve said there’s “real positivity” with coach Jason McCrindle at the helm.
Thanks to this and the hard work of volunteers, the “pathway” now gives good players the opportunity to play at the highest level and stay in Perth rather than “drain away” to other clubs.
However, Steve, who has worked in finance, believes there’s still considerable work to be done to make women’s football a commercially viable spectator sport in Scotland.
“What the SWF have done is great,” said Steve, who first got involved as a “dedicated dad” coach at Jeanfield Swifts when his daughter Chiara, then aged 10, started to play.
“They’ve tried to professionalise the game, they’ve tried to market it better, they’ve changed the league structure, brought in new sponsors, games are live on BBC Alba now – it’s fantastic.
“They’ve put criteria in for the top two leagues and standards have improved. A lot of players have started playing in other countries – and low and behold we’ve qualified for a World Cup! But they’ve still got the same problem – even some of the officers at SWF are volunteers.
“At this moment, the majority of people who will watch a women’s game are people associated with the team. The challenge is to make it a spectator sport. Then it can try to finance itself. But making that move from where it is now is a real challenge because at the end of the day it’s a business. It’s got to viable.”
In Dundee, Dryburgh Athletic Girls chairman John Beatt says it’s “refreshing” to be involved in the women’s game.
Dryburgh Athletic Girls is the official partner of Dundee United Women’s Football Club, and the 46-year-old Dundee Dental Hospital technician works closely with DUWFC head coach Gavin Beith to help recruit and sustain a ladies’ team.
However, while John firmly believes that women’s football will continue to grow and flourish, whether or not it ever matches the men’s game commercially is a “different thing”.
John has been involved with Dryburgh Athletic for about six years. Like so many volunteers, he got roped in when his daughter’s team needed a coach – and before he knew it he was chairman.
Today, Dryburgh has 120 registered female players across all age groups – coincidentally including John’s 18-year- old daughter Alix who signed for newly formed Dryburgh Ladies last year after a decade rising through the girls’ ranks.
The pathway with Dundee United WFC has been “great”, he said, with the Tannadice club’s ascendancy all the more remarkable given that it only played its first competitive game in March 2016 – gaining promotion to the premier league after clinching the SWFL1 North trophy in October.
The tie-up between Dryburgh and DUWFC came out of a conversation between John and Gavin three years ago when they discussed how to “grow the game” in the city.
But some of the younger players are already showing they can take on the boys at their own game. Scarlett Brady is currently captain of the Dryburgh Athletic 2006 boys’ club and both she and her twin sister Klara, who also plays for the boys’ club, have just signed for Dryburgh Athletic Girls U14s too. Dryburgh Girls U14s players Olivia Hurrell (Broughty United) and Amy Smith (Celtic Boys) also captain the boys’ teams they play in.
John believes the SWF are trying really hard to support the game. He hopes money will eventually cascade down to clubs and he’s sure that eventually the game will go professional.
It bodes well for the future, he said, that Tayside has Dundee United and St Johnstone in SWPL2 plus Forfar Farmington in the top division SWPL1.
But in the meantime he is really excited by the exposure the forthcoming World Cup will give – especially given that Scotland are in the same group as England! He added: “What other game do you want?”
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They’ve tried to professionalise the game, they’ve tried to market it better