Women’s soccer has taken a huge step forward and upward in Scotland

A refreshing approach for women’s soccer

This isn’t all about chasing numbers, glory or money though. The women’s game in Scotland refreshingly for soccer has standards, and morals and is looking out for the welfare of players, both current and future.

Glasgow City has banned any sponsorship related to alcohol in a joint initiative with Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP). The club’s Chief Executive Laura Montgomery explained why the health and well-being of players were so important that the club doesn’t support exposing people to alcohol marketing through sport.

Scottish Women’s Football (SWF) has also joined up with SHAAP to issue guidance through social media and via the SWF clubs to youth players on the impact of alcohol and how it can affect their performance.

For the Scottish Women’s National Team (SWNT) there’s more work to be done but there were some signs of progress as they narrowly missed out at the play-off stage for World Cup 2023 qualification. They look to be back on track after promising friendly wins over Australia (1-0) and Costa Rica (4-0) in early April. The next big competition will be the Nations League A which kicks off with a huge fixture away to England’s Lionesses at Wembley in September. Let’s hope the SWNT can build on all the great work in the domestic game so far.

All in all, that’s some season and the excitement and records kept on building as it progressed to an exciting conclusion. The challenge is to build on that again for next season and it looks as though the audience, players and official organizations are all ready for that.

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