Women's football in Scotland

Women's association football in Scotland has an organised history including the first international women's match in 1881,[1][2] the president of the British Ladies' Football Club in 1895, Lady Florence Dixie,[2][3] the Edinburgh–Preston "World Championship" in 1937[4] and 1939,[5][6] and the Scottish Women's Cup competition founded in 1970. The sport is jointly overseen by Scottish Women's Football (originally SWFA),[7] the Scottish Football Association, and Scottish Professional Football League.

Women's football in Scotland
CountryScotland
Governing bodyScottish Women's Football
National team(s)Women's national team
National competitions
International competitions
Champions League (clubs)
European Championship (national team)
FIFA Women's World Cup (national team)

Faced with bans and restrictions from the 1920s to the 1970s by organisers of male football competitions,[8][9][10] Scottish women's football has had some international success and recently gained some professional clubs. As of 2022, the women's leagues consist of the Scottish Women's Premier League with two divisions, SWF Championship North and South at level three,[11] the regional Scottish Women's Football League and the Highlands and Islands League.

The Scottish Women's Cup was first played in 1970–71, won by Stewarton Thistle. The Cup is open to all senior teams affiliated to SWF. Clubs of specific leagues enter the SWPL Cup, SWF Championship Cup, SWFL League Cup and Plate, the Highlands and Islands League Cup, the 'Performance' youth league cups, and various youth cups at lower levels.

The Scotland women's national team played its first official game in 1972, competed in the 1979 European championship and played its first game at Hampden Park in 2012.[12] The team qualified for its first Women's World Cup in the 2019 tournament. Scotland's most famous female players include Rose Reilly, Julie Fleeting, Kim Little, and the most-capped player of the national team, Gemma Fay.

The Scottish Women's Football League became the top national division in 1999, before the SWPL was formed in 2002.

The team that wins the Premier League title qualifies for the following season's UEFA Champions League, with the runners-up generally also qualifying depending on the nation's coefficient.

League system

In 2016, the Premier League was reduced from 12 to 8 eight teams but expanded to a second level. In 2017, the SWFL 2 changed from 4 to 3 regions. In 2020, clubs in SWFL 1 became members of a new Championship and SWFL 2 became a separate system.

The current (since 2020) pyramid is over 3 tiers:

Level League(s)/Division(s)
National Leagues
1

Scottish Women's Premier League 1
10 clubs playing 27 games
↓ 1 relegation spot + 1 relegation playoff spot

2

Scottish Women's Premier League 2
7 clubs playing 18 games
↑ 1 promotion spot + 1 promotion playoff spot

3 Scottish Women's Championship

Championship North
10 clubs playing 27 games
↑ 1 promotion spot + 1 promotion playoff spot
↓ 4/5 relegation spots (to new League One)

Championship South
17 clubs playing 23/24 games
↑ 1 promotion spot + 1 promotion playoff spot
↓ 10/11 relegation spots (to new League One)

Regional Leagues
– Scottish Women's Football League Scottish Women's Highland and Island League

9 clubs playing 8 games

SWFL Central/South East

11 clubs playing 20 games

 SWFL West/South West

12 clubs playing 22 games

 SWFL North/East

9 clubs playing 27 games

The pre-2020 third-tier regional divisions under the Scottish Women's Football League became a separate 'Recreational' setup no longer linked by merit to the 'Performance' levels above (although individual clubs can still apply to join the Championship). Until 2019, reserve and youth squads could compete in the senior pyramid as long as they were not in the same division as the titular club – this was then changed with the introduction of a 'National Performance League' structure for under-16 and under-19 leagues featuring age group teams of the top clubs.

History

Church documents recorded women playing football in Carstairs, Lanarkshire, in 1628.[2] A Scotland team played in the world's first recorded women's international match, in May 1881, at Hibernian Park in Edinburgh,[1][2] a 3–0 win against England.[13] The Scottish Football Association gives the date of the first match recorded under its official rules as 1892 (according to a 2005 article).[14] However, the sport was traditionally seen as a working class and male preserve.[9] Women's football struggled for recognition during this early period; after a period of growth during and after the First World War, including an Anglo-Scottish women's club game at Celtic Park in 1918,[2] men's clubs who were interested in using their grounds for women's football were subsequently denied permission by the Scottish Football Association (SFA) in 1924–25.[2] Research has shown that teams such as Rutherglen Ladies played exhibition matches for charity in front of large crowds during the 1920s and '30s.[15][16]

The English women's football club team, Dick, Kerr Ladies, renamed Preston Ladies, faced Edinburgh for a British trophy named the Ladies' Football World Championship, on at least two occasions in the 1930s. Preston won in 1937 by a 5–1 score,[4] but the trophy went to Scotland in 1939, when Edinburgh won the title, beating Preston 5–2 in an apparently longer club competition.[17][5][6]

The sport continued on an unofficial basis until 1971, when UEFA instructed its members to take control of women's football within their territories. The motion was passed 31–1, but Scotland was the only member to vote against it.[18]

In 1971 the Scottish Women's Football Association (SFWA) was founded and six teams registered for competition: Aberdeen, Edinburgh Dynamos, Westthorn United, Motherwell AEI, Dundee Strikers and Stewarton Thistle. In 1972–73 Westthorn Utd won the first league title. With Scotland having played their first official international match and Scottish teams reaching the final of the English WFA Cup in 1972 and 1973, the SFA lifted the ban and recognised the SWFA in August 1974.[19][2]

Since then the SWFA has been renamed Scottish Women's Football Ltd (SWF). The Scottish Women's Football League (SWFL) formed in November 1999,[20] and in 2002–03 the Premier Division broke away to form the Premier League (SWPL).[21]

Champions

The following clubs are known to have won the Scottish national championship:

Scottish Women's Cup
Rhonda Jones of Hibernian and Scotland with the Scottish Women's Cup trophy in 2010
Main article: Scottish Women's Cup

The Scottish Women's Cup is the primary national knockout cup competition, is owned and managed by SWF, and is open to all senior teams affiliated with the SWF. The competition was first held in 1970–71 and has been held annually for 50 seasons.

Senior national team
Main article: Scotland women's national football team
See also: Scotland at the FIFA Women's World Cup

Scotland's first official match, a 3–2 defeat to England, took place in November 1972. The team was managed by Rab Stewart. The Scottish Women's Football Association was not recognised by the SFA until 1974.[8][19] The SFA assumed direct responsibility for Scottish women's football in 1998.[9]

The Scottish government in 2013 promised to increase funding for the Women's national team.[30] Scotland women's national football team qualified for their first major tournament Euro 2017.[31] 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup will the first time the Womens team have qualified for a world cup.[32]

See also

References
  1. Campbell, Alan (19 October 2012). "No longer the game of two-halves". The Herald. Herald & Times Group.
  2. "The Honeyballers: Women who fought to play football". BBC News. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  3. Brennan, Patrick. "The British Ladies' Football Club". Donmouth.
  4. "PRESTON WOMEN CONQUER SCOTTISH FOOTBALLERS". Lancashire Evening Post. 9 September 1937. p. 7.
  5. Harkness, Jack (18 June 1939). "Scots World Title Lead". Sunday Post. p. 27.
  6. "EDINBURGH LADIES' TEAM SUPREME". Daily Record. 8 July 1939. p. 31.
  7. "How women's football battled for survival". BBC News. 3 June 2005. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  8. "Scotland women's football team on brink of big time". The Scotsman. 30 March 2014. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022.
  9. MacBeth, Jessica (Spring 2008). "Attitudes towards women's football in Scottish society" (PDF) (63). Scottish Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 December 2013. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. Macbeth, Jessica Louise. "STORRE: Women's football in Scotland : an interpretive analysis". Dspace.stir.ac.uk. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
  11. "New Senior Structure for 2020 and beyond". Scottish Women's Premier League. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 21 February 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
  12. Mann, Charlie (20 October 2012). "Scotland Women 1–1 Spain Women". BBC Sport. BBC. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  13. Plaque to the First Women Football Internationalists 1881, Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland, 17 December 2019
  14. "A Brief History of Women's Football". Scottish Football Association. Archived from the original on 8 March 2005. Retrieved 18 November 2013.
  15. Fiona Skillen; Steve Bolton (18 February 2021). "Women's Football in Interwar Scotland:Sadie Smith and the Legendary Rutherglen Ladies FC | Part 2". Playing Pasts. Retrieved 4 December 2021.
  16. New exhibition to pay tribute to Rutherglen's trailblazing female footballers, Jonathan Geddes, Daily Record, 5 December 2021
  17. "Preston Sending Strong Team to Scotland". Lancashire Evening Post. 12 June 1939. p. 7.
  18. Gregory, Patricia (3 June 2005). "How women's football battled for survival". BBC Sport. Retrieved 5 December 2013.
  19. "Edna Neillis: The forgotten pioneer of women's football". The Scotsman. 17 March 2017. Archived from the original on 4 April 2022.
  20. "Scottish Women's Football League". SWFA. Archived from the original on 29 November 2002.
  21. Jonathan Magee, Sheila Scraton, Jayne Caudwell, Katie Liston (30 January 2008). Women, Football and Europe: Histories, Equity and Experience. Meyer & Meyer Verlag. pp. 3–27. ISBN 9781841262253.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. "Scotland (Women) - List of Champions". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 22 November 2017.
  23. Turnbull, Simon (25 March 2007). "How the original Gregory's Girl lived her dream of dreams". The Independent. Archived from the original on 6 April 2009.
  24. Forsyth, Roddy (29 December 2000). "Midwinter shutdown sweeps in from Arctic". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  25. "Come on you reds; Playing the field... the real-life drama behind TV's new female football series". Sunday Mail. Scotland. 15 March 1998. Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  26. "Fleet streets ahead of 'em. - Free Online Library". Thefreelibrary.com. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  27. "Women's cup final preview". BBC News. 11 May 2001. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  28. "Tables: Leagues: Premier Division". SWFL. Archived from the original on 24 July 2001.
  29. "FC Kilmarnock take next step (FC Kilmarnock - treble winners 2001-02)". Killie FC. Archived from the original on 15 November 2004.
  30. "Funding boost for Scotland women". BBC. Retrieved 28 October 2013.
  31. "Euro 2017: Scotland's women qualify for first major tournament". BBC. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  32. "Scotland Women qualify for World Cup with 2-1 win against Albania". Bbc.co.uk. 4 September 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
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