Former Scotland captain Gemma Fay urges broadcasters to show more women’s sports

Former Scotland goalkeeper Gemma Fay has urged broadcasters to up their coverage of women’s sport to help give young women more role models.

She made the plea as she spoke to MSPs on Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, who are undertaking an inquiry into female participation in sports.

Ms Fay, who was capped 200 times for Scotland and captained her country before retiring from professional football in 2017, praised the Gaelic language channel BBC Alba for its support of women’s sport – but said more needed to be done.

Ahead of broadcasters coming before MSPs on the committee next week, Ms Fay said she wanted to know “what is their plan to increase exposure of women’s sport, or women in sport, across the various channels – and what is preventing them from doing it now?”

The former goalkeeper, who is now head of women and girls’ rugby at Scottish Rugby, said: “There is no doubt in my mind, it is a cheesy phrase but it is true – if you cannot see it, you cannot be it.

“If we want people to aspire to be something in this world, ie not just an influencer because that is what they see, then let’s show them the opportunities that exist to be strong, powerful women in the sporting world.”

She told MSPs it was only in recent years women’s football had been taken more seriously, saying: “When I started playing international football, I first got into the senior team when I was 15, I retired when I was 35.

“It took probably about 15 or 16 of those years to get to a point where people started to take women’s football seriously.”

But she said: “That challenge is not just a sport challenge, that challenge is a societal one.”

Speaking about attitudes to women’s sport, she added: “I used to gauge how well we were doing in women’s football based on what the taxi driver would say to me. At the beginning of my career it would be: ‘Do you switch tops? Do you shower together?’

“Towards the end of my career, it was: ‘I saw the game the other night.’ In a really short period of time that is showing the changing attitudes towards sport and women’s sport.”

But she said women’s football in Scotland should not be compared to the game south of the border, despite successes such as the England team’s victory in last summer’s UEFA Women’s Euro championship.

Ms Fay said: “I don’t think we should compare ourselves to England. I know that is a popular thing to do, especially in women’s football, when you see the success of the Lionesses, we see the success of the WSL (Women’s Super League) down south.”

She said teams in England had the “ability to dive into the pockets of the FA”, saying that the Football Association in England was “one of the richest”.

“The same deals don’t exist in Scotland,” the former player said.