THERE was more good news for women’s football this week. First, we had the announcement that both the winners and runners-up from the Scottish Women’s Premier League will qualify for next season’s Champions League. As it stands, Glasgow City and Hibernian would have guaranteed qualifying spots.
City still have a match to play in this season’s competition on Thursday, the return leg of tie against Barcelona, after a 6-0 defeat away from home.
A second spot has been earned after Scotland moved up to 11th in the rankings. This is due mostly to two important factors, the performance of the domestic clubs and our amazing national squad.
The second piece of good news came from the national team, who, as you all know, will be in France next year for the Women’s World Cup.
They are bringing to Scotland the most successful team in women’s World Cup history for the first time, the United States, for a friendly match on Tuesday, November 13, at St Mirren’s Simple Digital Arena in Paisley with a 7.15pm kick-off.
Scotland manager Shelley Kerr and the squad, who are extremely excited at landing this amazing fixture, reached out to the Scottish fans to support the team on the night and give the US team a good Scottish welcome.
The US are the reigning world champions as well as having claimed the 1991 and 1999 titles. They have also taken gold on four occasions at the Olympic Games. This is a real glamour tie and should not be missed.
And finally, finishing a good week for football, Julie Fleeting was inducted in the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. She is only the second women to be given that honour after Rose Reilly was inducted in 2007.
Rose was banned sine-die by the Scottish FA in the early 1970s but moved to Italy and gained more honours in her career than many of her male counterparts.
So not only are we currently creating history in football, we have an amazing past that we should all be proud of, too.
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