A FEW days ago, the Scottish Government announced October would see Scotland hold its first-ever “Women and Girls in Sport Week” and, as a long-time supporter of any initiative that aims to encourage more women and girls to become involved in sport, my interest was piqued.

Participation levels of women and girls in sport are fairly dire – a recent survey showed that during their teenage years, 71 percent of teenage boys are active in sport while only 51 percent of girls are.

As someone who has spent my entire life in sport both on the elite side and now as a punter trying to stave off morbid obesity, it is hugely disheartening that so many girls and women are disengaged with sport and physical activity.

In addition to the Women and Girls in Sport Week, it was announced that Sport Minister, Aileen Campbell, has formed a Women and Girls Advisory Board which includes members from sports administration, business, the media, the Sportscotland Young People panel, as well as athletes and which aims to come up with ideas that will drive participation, transform perceptions and develop stars for the future.

It’s pretty generic political speak but the overall aim can’t be knocked.
I will always be a supporter of any initiative that aspires to increase participation levels, particularly in girls, yet I am also aware of how tricky a task this is.

The promised legacy of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games failed to materialise with the Scottish Health Survey the year after the Games suggesting that there was a one percent decrease for adults and just a one percent increase for children meeting the government’s recommended guidelines for exercise.

So while I applaud the Scottish government for making an effort to create a dent in these disappointing statistics regarding female participation in sport, I have to admit to being somewhat sceptical about how much of an impact this new initiative will make. 

When I spoke to the Sport Minister following the launch of the Board, she claimed that she was confident that this new project was a step in the right direction in terms of making progress that countless previous campaigns have failed to make. 

“We need to recognise that things won’t change overnight,” said Campbell. “It’s about working out what we want to achieve, how we’re going to make that change and then do what we can with the talent we have. 

“This is about getting women active and understanding some of the barriers that persist. Those barriers have been there since I was at school – things like body image anxieties and concerns and those are things that we need to effectively grapple with, which is why there are young people on our advisory board.”

There is though, one sticking point. Without significant financial backing, any campaign is likely to have a limited impact. Last year, a Sporting Equality Fund of £300,000 was pledged to help cl ose the gender gap in terms of sporting participation, but a few hundred grand is but a drop in the ocean of what is really needed if actual change is going to happen.

Sport England’s impressive “This Girl Can” campaign produced significant results in terms of getting more females active in recent years but it did not come cheap – the marketing campaign alone cost millions of pounds. 

“We understand that there’s a need to help governing bodies with funding but it’s also about using the resources that are already there,” said Campbell. “So while I don’t underestimate the fiscal challenges that we all face in public life, I think we need to work out if we’re maximising that existing resource.”

It was not an answer that filled me with confidence that the required funds will be forthcoming. Sport remains too expensive and too inaccessible for much of the population and it remains an afterthought for government.

If sport was really taken seriously, Campbell would be solely the sports minister and not have sport lumped in with health – even a superhuman cannot cover both well. 

I applaud her attempt to do something about the number of females taking part in sport and I would love to see this new board come up with some revolutionary ideas. And if the government puts its money where its mouth is, there just might be some concrete results.

One last thing...

What is often the most surprising thing about many of the administrators in sport’s upper echelons is their utter inability to anticipate how some of their decisions will come across to the public.

The admission earlier this week by Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, that he has not seen the documentary Icarus, was truly staggering.

Icarus was released earlier this summer and drew back the curtain on the Russian doping scandal that has rocked elite sport in recent years.

It is, said Bach, the job of the IOC commissions to watch the film, not his.

The revelation that its top man cannot even be bothered to watch the most revealing documentary ever made is both bewildering and profoundly troublesome.