Sport / Friendly league signals new milestone for women’s football
A NEW, non-competitive women’s football league has kicked off for the first time ahead of plans for competitive cup action.
Five teams eagerly took over the Clickimin 3G North Loch Pitch for two hours on Wednesday night, marking a new milestone in the rise of the women’s game.
The seven-a-side games were played over the course of 19 minutes, with teams playing on the first Wednesday of every month from now until May.
It comes after Delting became the first club in Shetland to launch a dedicated women’s football team late last year.
The club’s overall aim was to take part in competitive action, and it brought 12 players with them on Wednesday night for the experience.
Despite the non-competitive label, players on both pitches were clearly not holding back when Shetland News visited at the start of Wednesday night’s action.
The tester competition is a small step towards the long-term goal of a full competitive league, Shetland Girls and Women’s football vice chairman Mark Watt said.
“It’s definitely been something we’ve been looking at for a number of years,” he said.
“We’ve been trying to get enough women involved for a long time to get to this.
“So it’s really good to see it happening finally.”
Watt’s daughter was six years old when he and Adam Priest were among the early adopters of the idea that there should be a club for girls to play football with.
He explains that she is now 17, adding: “So this has been 10 years in the making.
“The girls and women’s game here really has gone from strength to strength. It’s taken great leaps since then.”
Girls are able to play for local football clubs with boys up until the age of 13, when mixed football ends.
Watt said at that point a lot of girls “would often fall out of it”, and football became a hard sport to encourage them into because so many were already playing hockey or netball.
But last summer’s success for the Shetland women’s team at the Island Games was a “catalyst” for even more people to get involved in the game, he said.
“It’s been difficult over the years to try and get the numbers up, but it’s remarkable to see how many are playing now.”
These first three sessions at the North Loch Pitch – on the first Wednesday in March, April and May – are designed just to get people to come along and enjoy football outdoors.
However Watt said that the hope was to have something more substantial later this year.
“I would like to see a Parish Cup or a District Cup later in the year,” he said.
“Come the winter, I would hope to have around four to six teams playing for a trophy.
“A girls competitive league really would be a great thing for Shetland.”
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