Bans, belts and barriers ... but NOTHING could stop Reilly from blazing a trail to the very top
ROSE REILLY was only four-and-a-half years old when she was physically punished for playing football. Born into a world where women stayed very much on the sidelines, the sassy little kid from Stewarton was not for following the crowd.
‘I was at a school in Kilmarnock,’ recalls Reilly. ‘There were two separate playgrounds there. One for the boys and one for the girls. We weren’t allowed to get into anyone else’s space and the wee boys were playing football. So I used to go straight in and play with them and I got the belt for it.
‘I was told not to go back but every day I went back and every day I got the belt. The headmaster eventually said to me: “You’re never going to learn, Rose Reilly”. And I said: “No, you’re never going to learn. I just want to play football, I’m not doing anything wrong”.’
It was the start of a life-long chapter of exclusion for the Ayrshire player, who fought for what she believed in, no matter the consequence. Expelled from school aged 15, Reilly took on a job in a carpet factory and was quick to get involved in games of football in her lunchbreak. If that wasn’t frowned upon, taking an extended break was — and a game with the boys from the Johnnie Walker whisky factory was enough to see her sacked.
‘I was up against everything from an early age,’ sighs Reilly. ‘Even my mum and dad were against me playing. I was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Games when I was 15 or 16 years old and I went up to St Andrews for a week’s training session and the coach told me to stop playing football because I was developing “footballer thighs”. He said it wasn’t good for athletics!
‘My mum and dad, of course, were delighted that I was going to have an athletics career. I stopped playing for a week and then gave it all up for football. That was always my aim and my mission. I went through that before I even got banned from playing for Scotland. I’d been belted, expelled, sacked, called a weirdo and a lesbian in the street, and I was only a kid.
‘It didn’t affect me. I just thought that if there was an obstacle in front of me, I was going to smash it down. I just wanted to play football.’
Smash it down is just what
Reilly did as she progressed through the world of football.
Her story is well-documented. Banned from playing football for her country in the early 1970s, she forged a path in Italy and remains the only
Scottish woman to win a footballing World Cup — albeit while playing for a different country.
Reilly had played for Scotland 10 times before being banned. She insists she’s still none the wiser as to why she was stopped from playing by those at the top of the game, though the assumption is that she’d been punished for pursuing a professional career overseas.
‘I was in Italy playing and, the next thing I know, I’d been banned for life from playing for Scotland,’ she adds. ‘I never got any communication about it.
‘It led to the Italian President asking me why I hadn’t been playing for my country. I’d been playing football in Italy for about five years, so he asked me if I would play for the Azzurri. I wasn’t
quite sure how I could do that, but he just told me not to worry and insisted he would sort it.’
Sort it he did. Under Italy’s wing, the Ayrshire player flourished, and in 1984 at the Studio Armando Picchi in Jesolo, they found themselves going head-to-head with West Germany in the final of the Mundialito, the unofficial Women’s World Cup.
‘When we made the World Cup final I just said: “We’re here now, we’re going to win it”,’ exclaims Reilly. ‘The bigger the stage, the better I played, the more responsibility I had, the more I thrived on it. I was walking on air for weeks after the victory, smiling at random strangers. They must have thought I was daft.’
Having scored in the 3-1 victory, Reilly was voted best player in the side. If she had felt unwanted by
the Scottish FA, in Italy Reilly was lauded as a box-office belter.
She’d moved there after a six-month stint with Stade de Reims in France. The welcome she says, was incredible. It felt like a ‘mother’s embrace’.
‘I always remember when the plane landed in the middle of Milan, I felt a strange feeling of being at home,’ she recalls. ‘I just took everything in. It was just brilliant there, playing at the San Siro, you name it.
‘I’d gone out there with fellow Scot Edna Neillis, but after a while she got homesick and decided she was going to leave. I stayed in a hotel on my own for a year, communicating with my mum and dad through the blue air-mail letters.
‘I used to speak to myself
in the mirror at night. Not in a sad way, but because my team-mates didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Italian. It was my way of coping.
‘I bought a dictionary and learned Italian — three words a day — then embraced the whole culture. I was so in love with the game and everything there.’
Reilly was living the dream and even managed to win league titles in Italy and France in the same year, having been persuaded to turn out for Reims on a Sunday having played for Lecce on the Saturday.
‘I eventually stopped playing when I turned 40,’ she adds. ‘By that time, I had won eight Serie A titles, two Golden Boots, four Italian cups, the Women’s World
Cup, the World’s Best
I was only a kid, yet I’d been belted, expelled, called a weirdo and a lesbian
Female Footballer. It was just an amazing journey.’
Reilly’s story is one of fortitude and resilience. A brass-neck and a raucous sense of humour remain a huge part of her personality as she ponders the next generation following in her footsteps.
A huge fan of the Scotland women’s national side, Reilly will be in the Hampden crowd for their crunch game against Republic of Ireland on Tuesday, where hopes are high for World Cup qualification.
Thanks to a 1-0 win over Austria earlier in the week, Scotland can progress to the finals next year, should they beat their opponents and other results go their way. There is a lot at stake and Reilly is all too aware of the significance for the domestic game.
‘To make it to another World Cup would be great, because I think when we arrived at the World Cup in 2019 with Shelley Kerr, we actually over-achieved,’ she says. ‘We didn’t have the same resources as the other teams and we are now trying to get on an even keel.
‘Obviously, we’ve had a bit of a kick up the a*** with England winning the Euros this year. I was really rooting for them though because I feel like we should stick together as women — it doesn’t matter who you play for.
‘Scotland are in a different place now from where we were four years ago. There is much more professionalism in the game.’
It’s all a far cry from the days when women’s football in Scotland was banned. Executed in 1921, the ban, incredibly, remained in place until 1974 — with the SFA taking control of the women’s game in 1998. Not that that stopped Reilly and her fellow players from blazing a trail for Scotland internationals.
The first-ever Scotland women’s match took place in 1972 — with Reilly joining a team of women committed to the cause and desperate to prove their worth. Organised by Elsie Cook, then secretary of the Scottish Women’s Football Association, the ‘Ravenscraig Pioneers’ met England in a historic match in Greenock.
Last week marked the 50th anniversary of that first match, so the ‘Pioneers’ were invited as guests of honour to watch Scotland take on Austria at Hampden. Retrospective caps were awarded by SFA President Rod Petrie, and Sportsmail understand that caps were posthumously awarded to the families of Edna Neillis and Mary Anderson — who had both passed away before being given their honours.
‘It was a surreal moment and a proud moment for us,’ admits Reilly. ‘But my thoughts are with the women who are not with us any more. They never got a chance to get their caps.
‘Being back with the other girls though is just amazing. We’re part of the history of Scottish football. Walking behind us now are the young ones who will hopefully take us to the World Cup.
‘We are the pioneers, the ones who started the ball rolling. Leading our girls out onto Hampden, it doesn’t get any better than that.’
kind, then there will be a February jaunt to New Zealand for an Inter-Continental play-off.
Portugal and Wales kick off two hours before Scotland host
Ireland, meaning that things will be crystalised by the time the game gets underway and Hampden gets ready to roar again.
There were celebrations on Thursday night after Abi Harrison headed home from Erin Cuthbert’s corner but they were fairly sedate and suggested a feeling of relief at the first hurdle negotiated as much as anything else.
Ireland had the benefit of going straight into the final stage of the play-off by virtue of their runners-up place in the group, which ranked them higher, but it will be interesting to see if Scotland’s momentum is a bonus. Captain Rachel Corsie isn’t concerned at the 120 minutes Pedro Martinez Losa’s side endured as the Irish had their feet up.
‘I don’t think they’ve had that much of an advantage because they didn’t know who they were going to face,’ she reflected. ‘They’ve had some great results in qualifying. They put themselves in the best possible position by not having to play that extra game.
‘We know a lot of their players, which changes the dynamic I always think. You just have that bit more knowledge — but equally they’ll feel the same.
‘It will be really tight again, so we need to make sure we prepare properly. We know we have to win and it will be a different experience for us.’
The national stadium will open its doors hoping to draw in the same numbers, and maybe more, who broke the competitive record for a women’s game on Thursday night. There will be an acceptance within the camp that the best way to keep people enthused and coming back is with a winning team capable of making it to where the glitz and glamour lies.
FIFA have promised that next summer’s tournament will be the highest profile to date in the women’s game as they seek to drive up commercial interest and pull people into a sport that has been in sharp ascendancy globally across the last decade.
It is vital for Scotland that they follow in the slipstream of that.
Ireland have yet to make it to a major tournament in their history and they are depleted in terms of injuries. But there will be an appetite for the win that will be every bit as keen as Scotland’s.
To that end, Corsie believes that where Scotland have improved is in the mental side of the game.
‘(We are) much stronger,’ she said. ‘And that comes in a lot of different ways. You saw it on Thursday in large moments.
‘With 10 minutes to go, I thought we managed the game so well. But aside from that I think we’ve got a different environment in the group as a whole — we have a different belief and there’s more demands on each other not just to perform, but to have that mental toughness to encourage each other when we need it.
‘Both to dig something out and also when someone just needs an arm round them. There was evidence of that on Thursday.
‘We haven’t always found a way to produce that in the past, so it was just really pleasing all round. We knew it was going to be a difficult game against Austria. To get over the line, I thought was really professional, organised, disciplined. We need to watch it back and tidy a few things up. We are going to need to improve if we want to get to where we want to be.’
Vera Pauw returns to Glasgow, this time as manager of the Irish. And Corsie is wary of the former Scotland boss leaving with the last laugh.
‘Don’t talk that up into being a possibility!’ she said. ‘I’m sure Vera will work with her players over the next few days to make them aware of what you get when you face Scotland, but that’s for them to worry about and similarly we need to do our work to know what to expect on Tuesday night.
‘We felt on Thursday we came into the game really prepared and it’s important that we feel the same again on Tuesday.’
three of their elite performers would’ve been quite the drama over the years and a recipe for the excuses to be at the ready in the event of failure.
Not so, to any extent, 12 days ago when, minus Andy Robertson, Kieran Tierney and Scott McTominay, plus debutant Ryan Porteous standing in for Scott McKenna, Scotland secured that draw in Warsaw.
Scotland need no longer fear being without their Premier League finest even against quality opposition.
‘Steve ensured there was no big deal about it, there was a confidence in the guys there getting the job done,’ noted Brown. ‘It was set up for an excuse but it wasn’t needed. He’s not the kind of guy to use it as an excuse.
‘The team was terrific, so composed. From what we’ve watched in the last few games, I’ve not seen a better Scottish team for many years.
‘Steve’s group has got everything. Man for man, this team looks as capable as what we had when qualifying for Euro ’96 then the 1998 World Cup.
‘There’s such a good structure behind a group of very capable players — and some even more than capable. There’s very good international
talent in there.’
Scotland’s rise through the seedings means the likes of Wales, England, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Serbia and Bosnia will be avoided today. For a variety of reasons, those missions are worth skipping.
Pot Two status, for a qualifying series from which the top two teams in each group are guaranteed to make Euro 2024, really is a game-changer.
‘It’s a big thing,’ said Brown (below). ‘But the way this Scotland team is playing just now I don’t think we should genuinely be fearing any opposition.
‘I think a few should actually be looking at Scotland and saying: “We’ve got a major assignment on here”.’
The tournament finalists for next June’s Nations League — Netherlands, Croatia, Spain and Italy — will be occupied next summer, so are to be drawn in a fiveteam qualifying group to guarantee two fewer fixtures.
Denmark, Portugal, Belgium, Hungary, Switzerland and Poland are the other Pot One class acts Scotland could face.
‘You might think Hungary look a good one to get but they’ve just beaten England twice and Germany to finish second in their Nations League section,’ noted Brown.
‘It’s obvious to say each of those teams would provide formidable opposition but Steve’s team got a great win over Denmark at Hampden at the end of World Cup qualifying and have to draw on that.’
Cast an eye at the rung below, Pot Three, and note countries that Scotland have the beating of on the most current form.
Armenia were seen off home and away in the close season. Revenge for summer defeats was wreaked on Republic of Ireland and Ukraine only a fortnight ago.
‘Sweden, Norway with Erling Haaland, and Romania have the potential to be tricky in that seeding,’ noted Brown. ‘But, with the luck of the draw, we could get Armenia again. They didn’t look anything special in June.
‘In Pot Four, Turkey look quite decent at the moment, while Kazahkstan brings obvious difficulties given the travelling nightmare that would entail.
‘But Georgia could be a danger with their Napoli winger (Khvicha Kvaratskhelia) in sensational Champions League form.
‘I just don’t think that we should have any fear and can look forward to the group once the teams are drawn and fixtures organised.’
The way this team is playing, I don’t think they should fear anyone