SWNT in 2024: Five Hopes for the Year to Come

Euro 2025 Qualification. A clear purpose for the U23's. Turning Hampden the building into a home. Brand SWNT needs to be given the opportunity to stand no it's own two feet. Making SWNT for Everyone.

Happy New Year!

I hope that the year to come is kind, eventful in all the right ways and prosperous for you and the people that you love.

Firstly, an apology that Leading the Line has been quiet over this last month. A combination of exhaustion following the Nations League campaign and some other projects related to the world of women’s football that are more successful in helping to pay the bills.

It’s exciting to have work starting to populate my calendar and it feels a long way from that winter evening a few years ago where in frustration that nobody was talking about the opening day of the SWPL season I rustled up some match day graphics and set them free into the world. In many ways as the women’s game has grown so have I, and my ambitions will continue to push higher.

These projects have also allowed me some time to reflect on the type of content that I want to produce here in a space where I have rare full autonomy over the creative direction. Losing sight of that has probably played into that end of 2023 fatigue.

I’ll share a bit more on that new direction in due course but for now it would feel incomplete of me not to share my thoughts ahead of a year that will begin with wounds to heal for SWNT following a scarring end to the Nations League campaign at Hampden.

So without further ado, let’s get into five hopes for the Scotland women’s national team in 2024.

Qualification for Euro 2025

The most obvious one, but by the end of the year Scotland supporters will know whether or not summer plans in 2025 will be pointed towards Switzerland with the draw Euro 2025 qualifying taking place on the 4th March 2024.

Scotland finishing bottom of their UEFA Women’s Nations League Group A table was not, despite the optimistic prism that I will continue to view our national side through in 2024, a huge surprise.

England, (2022 European Champions and 2023 World Cup Finalists) and The Netherlands (2017 European Champions and 2019 World Cup Finalists) are heavyweights of the women’s game while Belgium were opposition to be approached with a sense of parity, two eventual draws against the Belgians, Scotland’s only points of the campaign, adding weight to that particular theory.

The Stadium of Light - England 2-1 Scotland, 22nd September 2023.

This was also not the same Scotland side that had earned it’s spot in Nations League Group A, sneaking in as the 16th seeds courtesy of a boom period when our national side had qualified for back-to-back major tournament finals. A squad shorn of some of past influential figures, some still fighting on, and going through transition under a manager who arrived in July 2021 following a period where the momentum built going into the 2019 World Cup had all but eroded away.

Having seemingly found a winning formula over the course of a summer where Scotland won four consecutive games under Pedro Martinéz Losa for the first the UWNL campaign ended with relegation and (to phrase it politely) deflation.

The 6-0 loss to England the third time (a 4-0 loss to The Netherlands and a record equalling 8-0 loss to Spain) under the Spaniard that Scotland took to the pitch against high quality opposition only to be brutally put to the sword.

In the post-match autopsy of that English defeat questions around the future of Pedro Martinez Losa began to surface more directly. Will he still be in charge for this campaign? I’d be surprised if he wasn’t, and although there is an increasing number of questions to resolve the eight month wasteland to progress that followed Shelley Kerr’s departure on Christmas Eve of December 2020 can’t return.

More practically he is also contracted to the role until September 2027, following an extension granted before the start of the Nations League campaign. The timing of which caught almost everybody by surprise.

Having lived in Madrid I’ve found some (unexpected on his part) common ground with the current national team manager in the peripheral conversations that happen before microphones are switched on and like all good madrileño’s the offer of a coffee before getting down to business is never far way. However, when the red light flickers on and the talk turns to the pitch there have been times when clarity of process has drifted away, particularly in those moments when a result has not gone Scotland’s way.

I want Martinéz Losa to succeed, in fact more broadly I want everyone in life to succeed. I am also not a football coach, and to give a mini-spoiler related to my introduction earlier, I have no inclination to become a tactical Svengali or to spend time on the touchline without a camera, pen or a pie in my hand but as a fan who has watched A LOT of Scottish women’s football and has spoken to others who do the same there have been curiosities to be found throughout the Nations League campaign.

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At home against England and The Netherlands Martha Thomas began on the bench. A striker who has flourished following a summer move to Tottenham Hotspur and a player that has been open about how much playing under coaches that believe in her adds confidence to her game. Attempting to secure a home victory without a striker starting on the pitch was a tactic that failed to produce results.

Having found success against Australia, Costa Rica, Northern Ireland and Finland with one style of play, in Nations League contests the systems in place and the personnel involved would frequently be changed. It was hard not to wonder if perhaps at times overthinking had started to come into play although circumstances did mean that sometimes his hand would be forced.

The defection of Sandy MacIver from the dark side (I kid…slightly) to the light added depth to an area of the squad where numbers were short, particularly following a wrist injury that saw Eartha Cumings miss the last four UWNL games, but MacIver was also third choice at club side Manchester City, with game time reserved for fleeting appearances in the Continental Cup.

The reaction from those covering the WSL doubled down on the idea that Scotland had managed something of a coup. She started against The Netherlands and away to Belgium before Lee Gibson returned for the final game. Who will be Scotland’s number one going into the New Year is now unclear for the first time since Gibson succeeded Gemma Fay and can MacIver stake a claim while continuing to spend the majority of her time on the City bench? It’s not impossible, but there’s no doubting her inclusion has added questions along with competition.

Of course injuries had a huge impact on the campaign along with the need to try and regenerate areas of the team where the conveyor belt has recently stuttered. Beside MacIver; Amy Rodgers, Jamie Lee-Napier, Amy Gallacher, Jenny Smith, Chelsea Cornet and a pair of teenagers we will talk about shortly all made their debut as Martinéz Losa casted his net far and wide for reinforcements.

No nation would go unscathed at an elite level when the talents of Caroline Weir, Emma Watson, Erin Cuthbert and Sam Kerr become unavailable, and the fact that the epidemic ran almost exclusively through the heart of the Scottish midfield allows some leniency, particularly in the Dutch double header. Recency however, is so often king in football, and the 6-0 defeat at Hampden has become the lasting memory of SWNT’s 2023.

Can Scotland qualify for the Euro 2025? I’d hope so. Despite our recent troubles Scotland should still aim to be one of the best sixteen sides on the continent even if the number of emerging nations striving to catch up and pass Scotland by are increasing by the day.

There is sufficient talent but Scotland’s greatest strength has always been found when making a collective stronger than the sum of its parts. If Scotland are to make it to the Alps then they are going to have secure a victory in a moment that matters for the first time since a 2018 victory over Albania in Shkodër (arguments can be made that the 1-0 victory over Austria should be included here but the defeat to Ireland a few days later was the one that ultimately counted).

There has to be a mentality shift. A belief that Scotland can get that big win that at times has felt absent from conversations with some players during press conferences over these last few months.

I believe they can, and if Martinéz Losa is to turn doubters into believers, securing Euro 2025 qualification in the process, then he has to find a way to make everyone else feel that way too.

An U23’s programme is now in full swing, but clarity in how it will benefit the national side long term needs to be found.

One of my early post-match conversations with Shelley Kerr came following an 8-0 victory over Cyprus at the start of the ill-fated, in more ways than one, 2021 Euro qualifying campaign. With the result a formality and the room sparsely populated despite the side competing at a World Cup just a few months earlier I took a stab at a question that had been percolating in my head for some time, “The jump between the U19’s and the national team is awfully big isn’t it?”

It’s a question I would circle back to as the personnel on the other end of it would change and so, following a hasty soft launch against Panama in November 2022 I was delighted to see the announcement a fully fledged programme would begin in September of 2023.

While an U23 programme is not a given for even some of the biggeset nations in the women’s game, for Scotland there is no doubt that bridging the gap between 19’s to A squad has the potential to be hugely beneficial.

The increased standard and physicality along with the immersion in a national team environment available to talented youngsters not ready to leave home, the SWPL, or quite ready to be a regular name at first team level, should prevent players who in the past have drifted away feel that a more gentle path to the elite level of the women’s game now exists.

Teenagers Emma Watson and Kirsty MacLean are two players that have also shown that talent can be fast tracked through the system, both (when fit) already feel like stick on’s to be involved in the squad for Euro 2025 qualifiers, while for those on the fringes, capped but yet to be regulars such as Amy Muir, Jenny Smith and Leah Eddie it gives continued exposure to international football. Players such as Aberdeen duo Bayley Hutchison and Eilidh Shore are now provided a long term step that has pulled them back from the international wilderness after prolific spells at earlier age levels.

As part of the U23 programme squads can also include a selection of overage players and the squads selected by Scotland for games against Australia and Netherlands this year have done that and I’ll be honest, I’m not sure how I feel.

Seeing established SWNT squad members such as Jenna Clark (although at 22 Clark would be eligible anyway) and Abi Harrison (now 26 but 25 when called up) being asked to make a perceived “step down” from the level at which they are already established questions what can be learned by player and coaches alike.

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If there is no space for them in the first-team squad and at a time when conversations are being had about the overload on female footballers as demand for them increases, would it not be for the greater good to allow them some time at home?

Rangers striker Kirsty Howat (26), who scored in the opening minute during a 3-1 defeat against The Netherlands is a different case. Having been called up as a replacement during the UWNL campaign she currently remains uncapped.

She has developed into one of the SWPL’s most complete forwards following a challenging time due to injury. With Scotland chasing goals against Belgium in Leuven would having Howat available been more beneficial than adding her experience to what in essence is a youth friendly?

At 26, does Howat, who, as already alluded to, has more than earned her shot at international football over the last twelve months, qualify as “part of the Scottish FA’s strategic priority to bridge the gap between youth and senior international football.” given that her last cap at youth level was back in 2016?

Just because you are allowed to include overage players does it mean it’s in the spirit of development to do so? When a space opens up in the senior squad how will performances at U23 level be used to assess how ready a player is to make the leap and is every player within it viewed with the potential to do so?

A period of transition is happening and, all going well, the players who have made up these early squads will become key protagonists within that. In 2024 the hope is that the pathway to the top for the next generation, and for those whose flowers have bloomed a little later, becomes much clearer.

Scotland have to turning Hampden the building into a home

Let’s not mess about, the atmosphere for Scotland’s three home encounters in the UWNL was, at best, subdued, the third of which against England was forced into submission for more sporting reasons.

Hampden is Scotland’s national stadium. Prior to the contest against England the latest cohort of women’s football pioneers received caps and overdue recognition for their service to the national team. For decades generations of women were locked out, to move games away from Mount Florida would not only be a backward step in perception but could also be seen to undermine their fight for equality.

The national team should play at the national stadium and now the move has been made it cannot be backtracked on. There can be improvements made but there also has to be some collective introspection into why the atmosphere for SWNT games has felt so distant.

On field performances have to enthuse and Scotland are currently going through a lean spell. I’ll never forget coming back to Scotland after living away and returning to Hampden for a men’s friendly against Costa Rica. I couldn’t convince anyone else to come, we lost 1-0 in front of a crowd of 20,448, the atmosphere sucked and it was a side scraping the bottom of it’s performance parabola at the time. A stark contrast from the sell-out signs that have been going up for a men’s matchday over the last two campaigns. The worm can turn.

Despite a competitive record crowd of 15,320 being announced for the defeat to England crowds have been poor and the trend has been stagnation at a time where across the globe some serious records are being broken.

Some supporters will point to increased ticket prices but what is an appropriate price for a women’s international? I’m not sure anyone has nailed the working on that one (although Arsenal’s impressive numbers this year show that with long term planning growth can be achieved and at some point in 2024 I’ll be heading down to learn more about how) and isn’t striving for sustainability a long term objective across the women’s game? For Scotland Supporters Club Members, in theory some of the most invested in Scottish success, entry remains free.

All three of Scotland’s home Nations League ties were on a Tuesday night. This was often presented as a reason and with a marketing skew towards a younger audience there is sympathy to be found but it is also one that seemed to shrug at a resolution. I get it, Friday makes it easier, but a well filled Hampden on a Tuesday night is not a rare occurrence.

It was also noticeable that often the most noise would come form those who had travelled from the continent (and over the border) to Glasgow. The Belgian laddie in his bright red suit a particular highlight but even the anthem, while performed beautifully, set a tone that what is about to happen will all be quite nice.

Buildings cannot generate atmosphere. They can focus it and fine tune its power. Flames and bagpipes can add occasion but they have no voice. Marketing and media coverage can generate hype but pictures and words make no sound. It is people, or in this case the fans, that will ultimately be required to bring the noise.

My hope is that through collaboration a way to make the decibels soar can be found creating an environment for supporters and also the players so that SWNT can become as equally synonymous with the phrase “The Hampden Roar”.

Which brings me on to Hope Four…

It’s time brand SWNT is given the opportunity to stand on it’s own two feet

I’m finally shooting my shot on this one after flapping my gums about it for the best part of two years. It’s always been bubbling under the surface but one thing has led to this leap of faith: Scotland’s qualification for the Men’s European Championships this coming summer.

Let me explain.

On the floor of Brussel’s Charleroi Airport myself and a couple of other Scotland fans returning to Edinburgh were sat huddled around my laptop watching the draw for the 2024 finals unfold before our eyes, less than a day removed from a UWNL qualifier and with another against the Auld Enemy on the horizon, the narrative across Scotland’s social channels had understandably shifted (and that’s without adding youth campaigns into the mix too).

As a fully paid up and long-serving member of the Tartan Army I’m buzzing that Scotland are back at a proper summer tournament but the messaging on socials following the 3-3 draw against Norway, amongst the celebrations and montages was one of an international season being over.

Again, understandably the week that followed was awash with celebration. Eventually with the latest SWNT campaign on the horizon the shift occurred, but a name change on Instagram highlighted a flaw in this one channel model as Schottland (Q), remained for the next phase of the SWNT campaign, with Instagram rules not allowing for more than one name change over the course of the next fourteen days. An honest oversight but a risk that can be run.

Looking outwards all three of Scotland’s Nations League opponents were able to platform their women’s sides on individual channels; Lionesses, Oranje Leeuwinnen and the Belgian Red Flames. Support for these channels will continue to rise providing bespoke platforms, that can be cross-shared and tell the stories of their respective national sides. Although in the interest of parity the Irish and Welsh offerings continue to operate a single model.

Sole branding is a strategy widely implemented across the club game too both domestically in Scotland and across the globe allowing for measurable growth and cross promotion when the content is appropriate to do so; tapping into a broader fanbase at specific moments as opposed to casting a wide net hoping to latch onto some strays.

It also gives potential sponsors a clear message to become invested in. Brands that may not be attracted to the men’s game may be into SWNT, although Scottish Gas’ joint sponsorship of the Scottish Cup shows patriotic appeal can be universal.

An April 2023 survey by FootballCo, the giant behind global brands such as Goal and women football-focused Indivisa revealed that YouTube is the most popular social media platform for supporters to find their content.

48% of the 2,291 respondents revealed that they go to YouTube for women’s football content, ahead of 42% each for Facebook and Instagram, and 37% for TikTok. Other platforms named included Twitter (35%), WhatsApp (31%), Snapchat (29%), Twitch (27%), Pinterest (27%), and Telegram (26%) but what was most interesting was that followers of the women’s game crave connection with those they see playing the game. To their credit the SFA have tapped into that with the Forza Scozia documentary in particular profiling players based in Scotland at an equal level.

However, is it possible to provide a truly equal platform when one half of the partnership has had a significant cultural and societal head start?

Starting on day one, when existing platforms have 700,000+ followers is scary. It could be seen as bowing to the melons who feel the need to articulate their lack of care for the women’s game.

Financial limitations and resource will also be at play, not to shock you but in football terms Scotland is not a land of milk and honey, but there will be no escaping that Scotland’s priorities in the opening month’s of 2024 will naturally shift towards Germany.

If you think that feels unnecessarily nervy then read the post that accompanied the appointment of Graeme Jones’ as Scottish FA Performance Director for all national sides, detailing the preparation process for this summer’s campaign but that mentions the women’s national side just once at a time when performance considerations are at the forefront of most SWNT supporting minds.

For whatever reason, maybe results and fatigue after a series of public disagreements (now seemingly resolved) between players and the SFA have played a part, the Scotland women’s national side has work to do to win over the hearts and minds of a country obsessed with it’s football after a difficult year.

A blank canvas could provide an opportunity to platform a generation of players that have done the hard yards, pushed for change, blazed their own trails, created history and become global superstars on the biggest stage.

It might not work, but it’s worth a try.

SWNT is for Everyone

Throughout the Nations League campaign I have been fortunate to/made a point of spending time with, and talking to supporters of all shapes and sizes. From those I see week-in and week-out on the SWPL beat to the life-affirming energy of youngsters who are aspiring to follow their heroes onto the Hampden turf.

For Scotland’s qualifier away to The Netherlands I watched the contest (on muted screens as an England Rugby World Cup match held priority) in a Southside pub with a start-up group called Pitch Please out to provide supporter space for a generation of Scotland fans that embrace a different kind of pints and party culture to the one seen in the men’s game and has felt distant from the more kid friendly nature the women’s game has been promoted towards. Ahead of the England game at Hampden, they sold out Queen’s Park 1967 Bar as a pre-match venue for supporters.

In Leuven and Tampere I met up with a generation a supporters who remember Scotland glory days the first time around. I’ve been fascinated at how a generation of female fans have emerged in their later years and on a more personal note both my dad and sister have become SWNT regulars when they haven’t been before.

Women’s football openness to the LGBTQIA+ community has ensured that it has become a safe space for supporters who can often feel without a home in the men’s game and I can tell you that conversations around the women’s game in Scotland are now filtering into old man discourse in corner bars and on terraces away from the SWPL and SWNT match days.

There is also the Tartan Army. General Scotland fans. Folk who like football. Yer Auntie. Yer Dug and the guy who delivers your papers on a Sunday morning.

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Support is growing and my hope for 2024 is not just some, but all of these people feel represented in some way. That they feel elation in success and the sting of defeat. That they can go to Hampden, turn on a television, read a website or newspaper and be proud of a women’s national team that is striving for so much more than just the results on the pitch.

I’ll end my hopes for 2024 on this.

I hope more than anything that the handbrake comes off when it comes to championing Scottish women’s football, that being bold allows for boundaries to be broken bigger and faster than ever before. That work commissioned in celebration is actually celebrated, that the trailblazers who receive their belated honours can cast their eyes across Hampden and feel like it’s all been worth it. That young boys and girls pick Caroline Weir and Erin Cuthbert over Leah Williamson and Lucy Bronze in EAFC. That brands and publications give the support to the women’s game at a time when it needs it most. That with the whole world telling you women’s sport is the next big thing, that people embrace it.

I am unwavering in my belief in the potential of Scottish women’s football, but no person, player, club, nation, media outlet or organisation can do it alone. Together Scotland can be massive and it all can begin with a little bit of hope.

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