THE events at Muirfield three days ago should serve as a wake-up call for Scottish football. No longer is it acceptable for women to be treated as second-class citizens in sport.
The East Lothian golf club’s decision to continue to deny women membership reverberated around the world – and the reaction was overwhelmingly hostile. Full marks to the previously dull-witted R&A, who reacted within minutes by stating The Open Championship will never again be staged at a club that discriminates on the grounds of gender.
Unfortunately, equality has yet to catch up with football. How can it be, for example, that in 2016 there are no women on the board of the Scottish FA?
It’s the same at our two biggest clubs, Celtic and Rangers. Both are happy to take season ticket money from women, but the closest women get to directorships is when they serve the suits their half-time refreshments.
It is precisely because of the above, I suggest, that women’s football is treated so indifferently. Yes, many of our leading clubs have women’s teams – but they are largely box-ticking exercises, tacked on to existing community programmes.
If that wasn’t the case, why would Glasgow City, a stand-alone women’s club, be allowed to so totally, and monotonously, dominate the domestic competitions?
In the wake of the Muirfield decision, Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland had female leaders in all walks of life. The First Minister, who is patron of the Scotland women’s team, should take a closer look at the nation’s most popular sport.
CONGRATULATIONS to Lisa Evans, pictured, and Emma Mitchell, who will be key players for Scotland in next month’s Euro 2017 qualifiers against Iceland and Belarus.
Evans took the decision to move from Glasgow City to Turbine Potsdam, then one of Europe’s leading clubs, when she was barely 20. It was a brave call for such a young player, even with the lure of professional football dangling on the line, but she made a success of life in Germany and switched to Bayern Munich last summer.
The Bavarian club romped away with the 2015-16 Frauen Bundesliga title. Pictures of Evans holding the trophy on a balcony, following the club’s final game last Sunday, lit up social media.
There was also a winner’s medal for Mitchell, another former City player. Her own move to Germany, and SGS Essen, lasted just six months, but only because Arsenal wanted the left-back.
Last weekend she, too, was pictured celebrating after Arsenal beat Chelsea to win the Women’s FA Cup in front of a record 32,912 crowd at Wembley.
Fabulous achievements for the two of them, but they barely registered in the Scottish public consciousness. Sadly, I think we know why.
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