FOUNDER and chief executive of Scottish Women in Sport, Maureen McGonigle has seen women's football come a long way from the days when the national side were borrowing flagpoles from local garages for matches.
The former executive administrator of Scottish women’s football, says that the success of the side has now meant that they are getting more of the sponsorship they need to succeed.
Ms McGonigle will be speaking about the opportunities for women in sport and why women deserve more support at Scotland's first conference devoted to discussing sponsorship in sport which runs tomorrow and Wednesday at the University of Strathclyde.
Ms McGonigle is one of a host of speakers at the first Via Sponsorship which looks to educate businesses and athletes on the value, importance, processes and power of sponsorship to create success.
It will also feature an array of presentations, panel discussions and workshops given by experts within the industry.
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During her previous position as the executive administrator of Scottish women’s football, Maureen ran every aspect of the club from fundraising to logistics and took the team to compete in their first UEFA tournament.
Emphasising how far women’s football has come, Maureen has spoken of the difficulties in the lead up to this where the girls had to pay from their own pockets to be able to play for their country. With strict budgets due to lack of investment, Maureen did everything she could to get women’s football to where it is now including borrowing flagpoles.
"Some of the grounds we had to play in didn’t even have flagpoles and we were borrowing flag poles from the local garage," she recalled. "Everything we did was on a tight budget so I am used to working without any money because of the area I was working in but it’s all changing now."
Scotland women’s national team made history in September, last year, by qualifying for the Fifa World Cup finals in France this year by comprehensively beating teams who are sitting further up the world rankings.
"Scottish women are doing great now and we have managed to get some sponsors in.
"For a long time people didn’t respect women in sport and that’s changing. The women have now made it to the World Cup. There is a difference in the standard of play. We did everything to fundraise to take the team abroad to play in their tournament but there are more investments into the team now.”
The Scottish FA have full control of all the national squads and Ms McGonigle says they have "invested well into programme delivery".
She said: "We have also seen added investment from Rangers, Celtic and Hearts into their women’s programmes this year and I am hopeful that this will have a knock on effect to other clubs."
Ms McGonigle said that things are changing for women in sport and the growth of new opportunities following new investments, sponsorships and recognition has been "phenomenal".
She added: “It’s been a slow evolution and there has been a beacon of thought that has now become a revolution and I’m going to be there for it.
“The conference will be a fantastic opportunity for any business to learn just how beneficial sponsoring Women in Sport can be."
Mel Young, the chair of sportscotland which is backing the conference, and another of the high profile speakers to join the line-up said: “We have a real opportunity to develop mutually beneficial partnerships between sport and business. Lives can be changed through sport and the most successful sponsorships occur when companies can directly impact on the lives of local communities."
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