CONFIRMATION that Rangers will be offering part-time contracts to their entire first-team squad from January onwards is a highly significant milestone for the sport in Scotland. If all goes according to plan, the players will have a structure which affords them financial rewards while allowing them to remain in outside employment or further education.
“The turning point for this was the World Cup and the coverage that got,” said Amy McDonald, the club’s women’s and girls’ football manager (below). “It’s fully supported by the board and is a huge step forward for Scottish women’s football.”
Having this month signed former Hibernian and Everton defender Emma Brownlie, as well as young French players Lisa Martinez and Daina Bourma, Rangers are clearly in the mood to recruit. Nevertheless, McDonald points out that all current players will be given the opportunity between now and the end of November to prove they are worthy of places in the new set-up.
“We’ll give everyone a fair shot,” McDonald, who was Gregory Vignal’s predecessor as head coach, confirmed.
“We want to give them the opportunity and most have bought into it, but we’ve been honest with them as well.
“They recognise that they’re not only fighting for a place week in, week out now, but also fighting for a place at the end of the season as well.”
Beneath first-team level Rangers academy players will not pay fees and will enjoy the club’s modern training and sports science facilities. But all eyes will be on how Vignal and his players perform next season.
“Absolutely we want to win the league and compete in the Champions League,” McDonald said. “It’s difficult to say when, because that depends on our recruitment. If we can get everything in place for January we’d hope to be in a position to compete for first or second in 2020 and take it from there.
“Emma Brownlie coming in was a huge statement for us. Not only will players be rewarded in monetary terms, they’ll be treated professionally off the pitch.
“In terms of being at a bigger club, and the facilities we have available, it will be difficult for a lot of other teams to compete.”
What will be interesting now is to see how other traditional men’s clubs respond to the marker laid down by Rangers.
The side which might have the most to worry about this development is Hibernian. Having lost so many of their top players to English clubs over the past 18 months, they now have a domestic competitor offering semi-professional football. Celtic, who they play today at Ainslie Park, have also indicated they may move to a fully professional set-up.
A solution, of course, would be for Hibs to offer semi-professional football to their players. McDonald, for one, would like her club's move to trigger a chain reaction.
“My hope is that much as Rangers are the first club to do this, that other clubs will follow suit,” the former Scotland player said. “That means there will have to be a significant change all over the game in terms of governance and league structures. Hopefully that will come out in the SFA review into women's football.
“My personal view is that playing summer football has served its purpose. If we moved back to a traditional season it would allow for more commercial viability. The introduction of Fifa compensation payments, hopefully in 2021, will also make it more of a sustainable model for everyone.”
IT is Champions League week again for Hibs and Glasgow City. The Edinburgh club travel to Prague on Tuesday morning for their last-32, second-leg, tie against Slavia the following evening. Grant Scott's side are 4-1 down from the first leg and therefore unlikely to go through.
City, by contrast, take a 1-0 lead from Moscow into Thursday night's home leg against Chertanovo at Petershill Park. A place in the last 16 beckons for a club who are only a few games away from a record 13th successive Scottish title.
They, too, will have to adapt to the development at Rangers, but the club's resilience has been one of its hallmarks.
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