"It was a tough debut for us, but I think we played against a very, very good side, a contender in this tournament. They’re very good in all areas. We’re disappointed to lose so many goals. We learn from this, we’ll work on our resilience and we’ll come back. It’s not over."
These are the words of Scotland manager Anna Signeul following the 6-0 reverse in the women's national team's first game ever in the finals of a major competition. To make it even harder to bear is the fact that the opposition was England. The summary from Signeul echo so many other managers words when the reality of coming up against a quality side hits home. Scotland were hampered by missing out on the services of five potential first eleven players but that does not alter the fact that the women's game is so far behind so many other European countries. Professional women's leagues prosper on the continent with the majority of the Scotland squad playing outwith Scotland and only two Scottish sides (Glasgow City with five and Hibernian with three) contributing to the squad. There is a constant battle for players to balance career or studies and a professional commitment to football. The SFA offered grants ahead of the EURO2017 competition for the squad to prepare on a full-time basis. However, this is blatantly not enough with the majority of players in the other squads represented in the Netherlands finals are full-time all the time.
Can Scotland sustain a professional women's league where competition is actually a competition and not a procession following Glasgow City who have won the top league 11 years in a row? With so many male teams struggling to make ends meet, I don't think the finance or the will is there to make significant changes in the next few years. With Scotland in the doldrums on the male stage despite so many initiatives/reports/plans financed by the ruling body; what chance do the women stand? If the male side of things need 30 years to make some headway; you would need to double or even triple that for the women's game. There are talented players around but they are lost to the game as they need to support themselves and the wages are just not there at the moment. Talent needs nurturing to progress and women's football continues to look for the big financial backer(s) to allow progress to be made.
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