Legendary footballer Rose Reilly has warned talented young girls are being priced out the game in Scotland and denied the opportunity to emulate England’s Lionesses.
Rose was named the best female footballer in the world in 1984 when she won the then equivalent of the Women’s World Cup with Italy.
She had been forced to leave Scotland to pursue a career abroad, and, 40-years on, fears promising young players will need to do the same, or fail to realise their potential, without urgent SFA investment.
Rose, 67, of Stewarton, Ayrshire, has called for free sessions at all council-run centres after children found a pitch named in her honour in her home town padlocked.
The married mum of one said: “The other day, I saw a wee girl walking past the outdoor pitch at the Rose Reilly Sports Centre carrying her football boots looking for a game.
“There was a padlock on the gate of the football pitch. What kind of message is that? We need these pitches open and available to the youth of today, so kids – especially young girls – are able to walk on to a pitch and kick a ball.”
The Rose Reilly Sports Centre currently charges non-members £2 per child to get on to the outdoor pitch, while memberships start from £10 a month for children. Rose believes it’s a cost some families can’t afford.
Rose, who is married to Argentinian husband Norberto Peralta and has a daughter Valentina, added: “There needs to be funding and it needs to come from the SFA – it wouldn’t take a lot of money to open these facilities to kids.”
Rose said grassroots funding is needed now if Scotland wants to achieve similar success to England.
She added: “We have three large patches of ground in Stewarton. Take signs that say ‘no ball games’ down and let kids play football.”
An SFA spokesperson said: “The Scottish FA wholeheartedly agrees that football facilities across the country should be more accessible and affordable, especially given the exponential growth of girls’ and women’s football in Scotland and across the world.
“Sport centres and leisure facilities are, however, predominantly owned and operated by local authorities and leisure trusts and we would welcome any discussion with Scottish Government and relevant local authorities to make access easier and more affordable.
“We exist to develop the game from grassroots to the Scotland Women’s National Team through a range of programmes tailored to girls and women of all ages.
“This has been a landmark week for women’s football in Scotland: today is the first matchday for the new Scottish Women’s Premier League, created collaboratively between the Scottish FA, SPFL and Scottish Women’s Football, while the Scottish FA announced an exciting new national women’s cup competition to kick-off this season, with the semi-finals and final being played at Hampden Park
“This follows the SWNT playing all home games at the national stadium."
Scottish Women’s Football CEO Aileen Campbell said: “Rose Reilly is right, access to facilities is vital to the success of getting girls to play football. We need everyone – that includes the Scottish Government, local authorities and the SFA – to work together to ensure sporting facilities are affordable and accessible to all.
“As the body who runs the youth leagues for the girls’ game, Scottish Women’s Football is committed to working with clubs and the SFA to drive up investment and improve access to football for every girl in Scotland who wants to play.”
A joint statement from East Ayrshire Leisure and East Ayrshire Council said: “We operate a number of synthetic grass pitches including the Rose Reilly Sports Centre. These venues have been constructed to a very high standard to support grassroots sport, as well as competitive sport, and the charges in place ensure the facilities are kept to this high
standard for everyone to use.”
The Rose Reilly Sports Centre will be running a Free football camp for girls from Monday 8th to August 12.
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