BELTED at school on a daily basis for playing football, sacked from her first job for playing football and then banned by the Scottish Football Association, international football star Rose Reilly had to fight to take part in the sport she loves. And she believes the women’s game is still being held back in Scotland – despite the national team making it to the World Cup.

Reilly, who remains the only Scot to ever score a goal for the winning team in the World Cup and who was lauded as the best female player on the planet, says much has to be done to further the game in Scotland.

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Although “ecstatic” that the women’s team has made it to France this year, she said they had a difficult task ahead because it had taken so long for the game to be accepted here.

“We’re behind because of the attitudes in Scotland,” said Reilly, who is the subject of a fascinating documentary on BBC Alba tonight. “England for example have so many more resources and are one of the top teams in the world.”

The National:

In 1971 the SFA was the single dissenting voice when UEFA agreed to promote and integrate women’s football. It had been banned in Scotland since 1921 on the grounds it was not a “game for ladies”. It took until 1998 before the SFA agreed to bring it under its auspices although they lifted the official ban later in 1974.

Earlier that year, Reilly was banned by the SFA along with footballers Edna Neillis and Elsie Cook but by then she had already moved to the continent so she could play professionally.

There she achieved fame, winning the French title, eight Serie A titles, four Italian cups, two Serie A Golden Boots and the World Cup where she scored in the final against West Germany. It was a 3-1 win for the Italian national side who had adopted her following her domestic success in the country. That same year, 1984, Reilly was named the best female footballer in the world.

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Despite her treatment by the SFA she says she is not bitter even though there were still a few objections when she was inducted into the Scottish sports hall of fame and the Scottish football hall of fame in 2007.

Last week she received her national cap from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon – appropriately just before the Scotland women’s team beat Jamaica.

Reilly told the National she was impressed by current coach Shelley Kerr and the players but said they had a tough challenge ahead.

“Shelley is on a good course and they have good players but some things still need to be in place for us to get to the top,” she said. “We are behind because when the other countries accepted the women’s game Scotland didn’t. That was ridiculous and has held us back.

The National:

“All of a sudden everyone is discovering women’s football here but they are not doing enough to sustain it. The league is the root of the tree and if you don’t invest in that it will fall down. We need the investment now for the next generation.”

She added: “The game has to be embraced by the men’s teams – if they take it under their wings and share their facilities that would help it grow.”

Born in Stewarton in Ayrshire in 1955, Reilly developed a love for the game at an early age, even sleeping with her football every night.

Hours of playing at the local park with the boys brought her to the attention of the manager of Stewarton Boys’ Club who said she could play for them as long as she cut her hair short and agreed to be called Ross.

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Aged nine she was asked to join Stewarton Thistle Ladies but began to show promise as an athlete as well as a footballer and was selected for a Commonwealth Games training squad.

Asked to make a choice between athletics and football, Rose chose her first love – much to the despair of her long-suffering parents as there was no obvious future in it at that time.

Expelled from school for playing football, then sacked from her first job after she played football in her lunch break and was late back to the factory, she decided to head to France, at the age of 17, to carve out a career.

Along with Neillis she was snapped up by Reims then offered a place at AC Milan.

Still only 17 and without a word of Italian, Reilly learned the language by memorising three words a day from the sports paper but says she thought she was in “heaven” because of the way the game was embraced in her new home.

“It was like a complete other world,” she said. “There was absolutely no comparison. I didn’t have to buy my own boots. I didn’t need a paper round. I wasn’t jumping over obstacles any more or getting put down by everybody. I was living my dream.”

Rose Reilly is produced by purpleTV for BBC ALBA. It will air tonight at 9pm, and thereafter for 30 days on BBC iPlayer.