‘We need to cater for everyone,’ says Scots’ football chief

In the early 20th Century, women’s football grew almost as quickly as the men’s game, and reached new heights when the nation’s men left for the First World War.

However, in 1921 the FA took the decision to ban women’s football, essentially outlawing the game in England.

By the time women’s football saw a resurgence in the 1970s, the sport was already viewed as male-dominated having lost out on 50 years of development.

Fiona McIntyre, executive officer for Scottish Women’s Football (SWF), said this context cannot be overlooked. However, the important thing now, she said, is that the sport has grown and is being recognised by young girls as an option.

“I think we need to cater for everyone,” she told The Courier. “Everyone is interested right now in the premier league and the high end of the game, and rightly so because the women’s national team have done so well. It’s important that we continue to develop that end of the game, create role models for our young players. But it’s also important to remember that we are here to cater for the grassroots – kids, women, that just want to go out and play and have fun.”

Like youth and amateur football, the SWF is an affiliated national association (ANA) to the Scottish Football Association (SFA) – recognised as the non-professional part of the game.

It means the SWF gets a vote at the SFA AGM. However, Fiona said there’s “no parity” because despite having more than 200 clubs and 500 teams, the SWF only has one vote while every male club gets their own vote.

Unlike other ANAs, the SWF is responsible for elite performance players right down to primary school children trying football for the first time.

Yet unlike the men’s game, female clubs are very much self-funded with the main income being commercial sponsorship.

Compared with the set-up at many English premier league clubs where millions have been invested by the FA and matched by clubs, only a handful of professional contracts have been signed in Scotland.

Fiona said this means Scotland has had to be more innovative and find ways to work within the parameters that do exist. However, investment is growing.

“I think at the moment the women’s game here probably mirrors what you see in amateur and youth football,” she said. “It’s all willing parents and volunteers. The game at this point in time wouldn’t survive without them.

“But if you are talking more about the performance and the elite end of the game, then what we are seeing now is some of the clubs making big announcements.

“Aberdeen, Hearts, Celtic, Rangers are four clubs in the last five or six months who have made big announcements from the men’s or ‘main’ club saying ‘we are going to invest more in our women’s section’. I hope we see more of that. That should take the pressure off these volunteers, because I feel now we are asking volunteers to do too much. I think if there’s a bigger infrastructure around them in terms of a professional club that can take all that burden off them.

“But I think the clubs have got to want to do it. I’d never like to see it as a tickbox exercise. At this moment in time without player compensation coming through from Fifa or without huge chunks of prize money or funding, it’s a difficult sell to do it for financial reasons. I’d be dishonest if I said otherwise. But there’s a bigger picture about what clubs’ obligation is to wider society. They should be catering for the girls and women in their area as a football club because they are part of that community.”

Fiona is certain there will be a spike of interest in female football from this summer’s Fifa Women’s World Cup – just as there was after the 2017 Euros. However, she said it’s important efforts are made to keep girls in the game with a quality experience being offered.

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I think at the moment the women’s game here probably mirrors what you see in amateur and youth football