As she pursues her own ‘Utopia’ for women’s football in Scotland, Fiona McIntyre can’t help but steal an envious glance at the paradise being built in England’s green and pleasant land. An inspiration, yes, but also a reminder of the miles still to be covered if this proud footballing nation is to realise McIntyre’s dream of a completely full-time top flight.
The SWPL managing director, rightly proud of a product unrivalled for drama at the business end of the table, is confident that every piece of available data points to continued growth in the women’s game north of the border.
But it’s only natural to feel that our nearest neighbours — in this case an English game guaranteed to take another stratospheric leap as a result of the Lionesses defending their European Championships title — should produce mixed emotions for anyone trying to keep up with the Kellys and the Hamptons.
‘I look at them, the Lionesses, with jealousy; I’m not going to lie,’ admits McIntyre. ‘When Scotland qualified for the Euros and the World Cup, we saw the biggest uplift ever in the number of women playing football in Scotland. That’s the impact, it’s massive.
‘Having a national team competing on the world stage or the European stage is hugely important, but also, from a league perspective, it does so much for the credibility of your country.
‘I look at the national team and I see the talent there, and I know they’re more than capable of qualifying. The new manager is in, and it feels like a sort of fresh momentum is coming with her, so I genuinely hope they can kick on, get some results and that we’ll be sitting here again soon talking about a Scotland team going to the Euros or the World Cup.’
Jubilant England players lift the European Championship trophy last month in Basel
Scotland have underachieved despite star players like Real Madrid’s Caroline Weir
International aspirations are, of course, elements beyond the control of the people working so hard to modernise Scotland’s elite domestic competition. But ‘Prem One’, as those in the game call an SWPL1 division which has just been cut from 12 teams to 10 in pursuit of greater competition across the board, is more than contributing to the wider growth of the sport.
McIntyre feels that the top tier, with its dramatic final-day title deciders, its landmark partnership with ScottishPower and its growing profile across the country, is already delivering in one very important sphere of public life. Perception, in this age of optics and vibes, is everything.
‘People have now got a far greater understanding that, as a professional women’s football league in Scotland, we have real high-quality calibre elite professional athletes both in our country and those who have left, such as Erin Cuthbert and Caroline Weir.
‘Women’s football for a long time was viewed as almost quite amateur and part of that would be down to the resource that was in it, and the visibility of it, and that impacted how players were able to prepare.
Hibs lift the SWPL title at Ibrox after a dramatic final day of the 2024-25 season
Rangers and Celtic will again set their sights on the title this coming season
‘What you see now is a growing respect for the fact that women’s football is an elite sport, attracting national brands like ScottishPower, and there’s an aspirational element to it now.
‘That’s probably the biggest shift that I’ve seen, particularly around the younger generations when you see young girls waiting for items to get autographed and they’ve got kits with names of the female players on the back. That really shows you have created these real genuine role models.’
Not content to rest on achievements to date, McIntyre is eager to see improvement — across all metrics — as the new SWPL kicks off on Sunday August 17. When it come to dramatic tension, the last few campaigns will be hard to beat.
Hibs will defend the title they won last season on a final day when any one of four teams could have taken the crown. Previous to that, Celtic won on goal difference and, before that, Glasgow City triumphed with the last kick of the campaign.
For a game looking to attract new fans and commercial partners, that’s the stuff of dreams.
‘It’s huge,’ says McIntyre. ‘We speak a lot about everything around the game and what we’re trying to achieve off the pitch, but fundamentally what happens on the pitch is the most important thing.
‘Football is at its most exciting when it’s competitive and there’s a real uncertainty of the outcome. We’ve been really fortunate in the last three seasons that people were genuinely not sure which way it was going to end until the very last kick of the ball.
‘I think we’re the most competitive (league) in Europe. We absolutely want to capitalise on that in terms of using that narrative, that story. I think that’s created media interest — or additional media interest — and that’s something we absolutely try and capitalise on to get people into stadiums.’
McIntyre is keen to talk about perception and is working hard to ensure the game in Scotland is respected accordingly.
This season is one of change in the SWPL. The top league has been reduced from 12 to ten teams. There is a reason for that, obviously, and it has all to do with quality and competitiveness. The SWPL was matched only by Spain in the number of games players were being asked to play, so that had to be reduced.
SWPL managing director Fiona McIntyre is eager to modernise women’s football in Scotland
Women’s manager Elena Sadiku will be hoping Celtic can reclaim their league crown
Also, a UEFA study showed that, post-split, the SWPL was by far the most competitive but, pre-split, it was at the other end of the spectrum with at times particularly high, one-sided scorelines. That needed to change, but all the teams had to be on board.
When the SPFL touted cutting the Premiership to ten teams, there was outcry. In the SWPL, it was different.
McIntyre says: ‘I guess women’s football is still earlier in its journey and, from the outset, when we set up the SWPL, there was definitely a real sense of collective identity. All the clubs were coming together for the greater good of women’s football.
‘It’s never a popular decision to reduce the top league. Essentially, we relegated three teams and not everyone necessarily liked that but, to their credit, they all understood because we presented the data, we presented the why, and even the clubs that were impacted by that negatively were very understanding because we presented the reasons and the rationale behind it.’
It takes a lot for clubs to commit to full professionalism. Even champions Hibs don’t pay all of their full-time players what you would call a proper living wage. That won’t change overnight.
But a completely full-time top flight? An entire league full of female footballers who have earned the right to call themselves professionals?
‘I hope so — that’s certainly what we are trying to deliver,’ says McIntyre. ‘That’s the Utopia.’
■ ScottishPower is dedicated to energising women’s football at every age and stage of the game through its exclusive Principal Partner for the Scottish Women’s Premier League (SWPL) and Scottish Women’s Football (SWF).
