THE unexpected departure of Anne McConaghy, who was head of strategy and partnership for girls’ and women’s football at the Scottish FA, remains a mystery.
McConaghy had only been in the post for 18 months and replaced the estimable Sheila Begbie, albeit with a different title and role. Begbie, an unstinting force for good in women’s football, is now at Scottish Rugby.
All we know about McConaghy’s departure – news of which was imparted under the radar to women’s clubs by SFA performance director Brian McClair – is that it is part of the ongoing performance review.
We are promised all will become clearer soon, but this is the second time McClair, who took over from Mark Wotte last June, has flexed his muscles in the direction of women’s football.
The first was his bizarre decision not to send Scotland to this year’s Cyprus Cup. Instead, Anna Signeul, pictured, and her players were allocated a friendly against Spain in Falkirk and cold-weather training at Ainslie Park. This while most of their potential Euro 2017 rivals played three or four competitive games in sunny climes.
Until the McConaghy decision is explained, it is impossible to pass comment. It is, nevertheless, surprising that women’s football appears to be exercising McClair so much when he, like Wotte, was engaged to address and rectify the real performance issue in Scottish football. That is, of course, the 21-year systemic failure of Club Academy Scotland and its predecessors to produce young footballers of a sufficiently high standard for the men’s international team.
By contrast, and before previous SFA regimes had an inkling about performance strategies, Begbie and Signeul set up the pathway which now sees the Scotland women’s team on the brink of qualifying for Euro 2017.
Chief executive Stewart Regan and past-president Campbell Ogilvie were instrumental in the long overdue process of changing attitudes to women’s football on Hampden’s sixth floor.
So, quite why we are witnessing this flurry of quirky activity from McClair is not at all clear. We are going to have to wait until the “ongoing performance review” is concluded to pass judgement on his master plan for women’s football.
JUST a few games into the SWPL1 season and this is already an important day for Hibernian and Celtic, who meet at Albyn Park.
Having talked Celtic up last week, they lost at Stirling University – while since then Glasgow City have won twice, including an 8-0 thrashing of Spartans.
That leaves the champions six points ahead of Celtic and five ahead of Hibs, although the latter have a game in hand.
Neither can afford to lose further ground today as the leaders are at bottom club Forfar Farmington.
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