THE midweek launch of a new partnership between Lidl UK and the Scottish FA was a salient reminder of how quickly women’s football is growing.
By 2018 it is planned that there will be 300 Lidl Skill Centres in Scotland, and while most will be mixed, some will be for girls only. It’s a form of positive discrimination which former Scotland striker Suzanne Grant feels is necessary.
“I think it’s important we have them, because a lot of girls can get intimidated,” said Grant, who was the face of women’s football at the launch.
Fortunately there was nothing shy or retiring about the 104-times capped striker, who persevered with football despite there being no girls’ team, never mind skills centre, to play for when she was growing up in the Highlands.
Now clubs abound and 10,000 girls and women are playing the sport.
Grant and her twin sister Shelley, who also went on to play for Scotland, were rescued by football scholarships offered by Roy MacGregor at Ross County. The club paid for them to board with families in Inverness, while providing transport to take them to and from Dingwall where they trained alongside the club’s male youth players.
As was evident at Lesser Hampden on Wednesday, Grant’s passion for football remains undiminished. Now 31 with a two-year-old son, Oscar, with footballer partner David Winters, she plays for Motherwell Ladies, and has been scoring for fun in the lower divisions.
Many of her team-mates are also former Scotland internationals who share Grant’s experience of having to fight for everything they got. They often had to train and play with boys, which sharpened their skills and toughened them up.
That’s something which shouldn’t be dismissed. Skill centres and academies are wonderful, but the character-forming experiences of Grant and her generation served them well too.
YET again, the Football Association are making noises about a GB women’s team at the Olympics. Having been spurned for Rio, attention is turning to Tokyo in 2020.
While the frustrations of the players are all too understandable, the FA can’t have it both ways.
Special dispensation was granted for London because it was a home Games, but it’s political dynamite to keep asking Fifa for further concessions.
Either there are single UK men’s and women’s teams for all competitions, including the World Cup and the European Championship, or the FA have to accept the Olympics are a non-starter. Anything else risks torpedoing the status of the four home nations.
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