A Field Guide to Scottish Women's Football
Hopped on the bandwagon and want to join us vibing in the best league in the world but not sure what's going on or who to support? A fan and want to learn a bit more? Come on in, we're here to help.
Scottish women’s football is growing at an incredible rate, more and more fans are coming to games every week and taking an interest in the games on TV. We want to make sure everyone has all the information they need to get involved.
Some of you reading this will likely have Scottish women’s football as your expert subject for a potential future mastermind appearance, but, there’s no harm in reading on in case there’s something you’ve missed (or that’s changed recently). Even better than that though, share this article with your friends and get them on the Scottish women’s football train.
This is our second article for newbies to the wonderful world of Scottish women’s football, last week we published a guide to the vibes across the SWPL to help you decide who you should support. That article has more detail on the teams, stadia, and players across the top two divisions so we would recommend giving it a read first (and devoting your love and attention to one of the 20 teams in the SWPL, or one of the infinite number of SWF teams).
The Scottish Football Pyramid
So, first off a quick explanation of how Scottish women’s football is structured. It is different to basically every other league in women’s football and is structured differently than the men’s pyramid in Scotland. Confusing for many at the beginning of their fan journey.
Before we begin we have some abbreviations to get squared away.
SFA = Scottish Football Association
SPFL = Scottish Professional Football League
SWPL = Scottish Women’s Premier League
SWF = Scottish Women’s Football
We’ll go into further detail on who all these organisations are and what they do throughout. To put it simply, they manage, operate, and run football in Scotland across the varying levels.
Keeping things simple we’re going to limit this to the top four divisions, those are SWPL, SWPL 2, SWF Championship, and SWF League One. Incredible football is being played below those, all the way down to community five-a-side leagues (which we conveniently wrote about and have linked below).
But, that is also where things get regional and that’s an added complication for another day.
SWPL
2024/25 will be the last edition of the current SWPL and SWPL 2 format, so we aren’t going to go into loads of detail into how it works (and don’t worry if you have questions, that’s what the comments are for!).
The SWPL is currently made up of 12 teams, in the first stage of the season they will all play each other home and away before splitting into two divisions of six and playing home and away again. With reconstruction on the horizon three sides will be automatically relegated in 24/25 and there will be no playoff. The top two qualify for the Champions League, however this is based on coefficients and may change in the future.
From 2025/26 onwards it gets slightly more complicated, the league will be made up of ten teams, each will play home and away before splitting into two. The top six and the bottom four. They will play each other home and away, meaning the top six play ten games post-split while the bottom four will only play six. Last place will be automatically relegated with ninth going into an expanded playoff which we’ll explain along with the SWPL 2 set up.
SWPL 2
Speaking of… SWPL 2 is currently an eight team league with each side playing home and away, twice. With reconstruction on the horizon only the first placed team will be promoted this season. Last placed is relegated automatically to the Championship while seventh plays the Championship runner up in a single legged playoff on neutral ground.
From 2025/26 they will follow the same league of ten set up with the same split structure. The team that wins the division will go up automatically, replacing the bottom side in SWPL. Then there’s the playoffs…
The teams finishing from second to fourth will qualify for the promotion playoffs. Single legged ties at the home of the team that finished higher, with the final at a neutral ground. Fourth play third in the first round, the winner plays second, and then finally the winner of that will face the ninth placed SWPL side.
The relegation playoff remains unchanged in format, the only difference being second bottom will now be ninth instead of seventh.
SWF Championship
With the Championship and League One come more changes after a voted restructure last summer. The Championship is made up of twelve teams who will all play each other twice, before splitting into two groups where they will play each other once more. The top six are fighting for automatic promotion earned by first, and the promotion playoff spot in second.
The team that comes second faces the SWPL 2 side that finishes second from bottom, seventh this season and then ninth from 25/26 onwards.
The bottom six are fighting to remain in the division with last placed automatically relegated, and 11th facing a playoff against the League One runner up.
SWF League One
League One was a 12 team league, however, winter 2023 brought its own challenge as a number of teams withdrew from the Championship and League One. An emergency general meeting was held in March where it was decided that League One would operate as an 11 team league for 24/25, becoming a twelve team league again in 25/26.
This season 11 teams will play each other twice, before splitting into a top five and bottom six. The top five will play for automatic promotion in first and a promotion playoff in second. From 25/26 onwards it will follow the same model as the Championship.
The bottom six are fighting to avoid finishing last, who will be automatically relegated. This year two sides from the regional leagues will be promoted to take League One up to twelve.
Cup Competitions
Within this pyramid there are a number of cups to be won, these all follow fairly standard knockout formats but different teams are eligible for different competitions.
The biggest of all is the Scottish Cup, the national competition is open to all senior teams that are affiliated with the SFA. Starting with a preliminary round for the lowest ranked sides, League One teams enter in the first round followed by their Championship counterparts in round two. SWPL sides are all added together in round three. The semi-finals and final are played at Hampden, the final traditionally the final game of the season.
Next up is the SWPL Cup, this is made up of the 20 teams in the SWPL. It has not yet been announced how this will look following the restructure but currently SWPL 2 sides face each other in the first round while SWPL sides join in the second round. The final is played during the season, usually in the Spring, with the stadium bidding to host the final. The last two editions concluded at Tynecastle.
The third and fourth tier have their own competition, the SWF Championship and League One Cup (bit of a mouthful). Round one is made up of sides in League One with the winners heading to round two where the Championship teams enter. Straight knockouts with the semi-finals and final played at a neutral ground. Last season this was New Central Park and the Indodrill Stadium.
This is a long article so we’re taking a quick pause here to let you catch your breath, the perfect opportunity for you to leave a comment with any questions that may have popped up so far!
Below we will continue to take you through the need to know of Scottish women’s football with the history of who has been successful and influential to a couple of players that you have to know. We don’t want you making a fool of yourself in the group chat!
A Tour Through Time
Women’s football has been played in Scotland for centuries, in fact there is evidence of women playing football as long ago as 1628. The first record of women playing football anywhere in the world. We aren’t going to go back that far, or as far as the first recorded game played under football association rules (a 3-0 Scotland victory over England in 1881). We are skipping to the modern era, kicking off in the 1970s with the, reluctant, lifting of the ban on women’s football.
It was the opening of the decade that the Scottish Cup was founded. The story goes that a journalist at the Sunday People put in a call to Elsie Cook who would go on to call all the clubs she could find and form an unofficial competition that’d be won by Stewarton Thistle (who made it to the FA Cup final in England that same year). This competition was for the “H Samuels Trophy” but in essence they became the ‘first Scottish Cup champions’.
Women’s football in Scotland remained banned in essence with the SFA doing the bare minimum to keep UEFA happy.
In 1972 the rapid progress continued and the SWFA was formed by the clubs, not affiliated with the SFA yet they formed the first “official” Scottish Cup. Edinburgh Dynamos would win that competition becoming the second ‘first Scottish Cup champions’. The SWFA also set up a league system, despite the lack of SFA support and the lack of access to SFA affiliated facilities and referees, Division One was the top level of this and ran all the way up to the creation of the SWFL in 1999.
In 1974 the SFA stance softened and some recognition was given to women’s football. The lack of support magnified by continued ridicule in the media, as has been the history of women’s football around the world. The first Scottish Cup played with SFA affiliated referees and pitches was won that year by Motherwell AEI, the third team to become the ‘first Scottish Cup champions’. Warout Stadium in Glenrothes the venue.
In 1995 Scottish women’s football made British football history as Cove Rangers’ Nicky Grant became the first player on the isles to receive a paid sponsorship deal. After reading an article in the Evening Express, RSL Motors made an offer to sponsor the Scotland international. Covering her travel costs to allow her to study at Edinburgh university, giving her a car, and supplying boots and kit for two years. A landmark deal on the path to increasing legitimacy and professionalism.
It wasn’t until 1996 that the SFA brought the Scottish women’s football association (SWFA, now SWF) into their care, although this didn’t mean that the SWFA were an arm of the SFA. That wouldn’t happen until 2007 when the SWFA became the SWF and the SFA took over the running of the pyramid. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves… 1996 is where the SFA start their record of Scottish Cup winners, as seen here, making Cove Rangers the fourth ‘first Scottish Cup champions’.
In 1999 the Scottish women’s football league (SWFL) was formed, replacing the SWF leagues that had formed in the immediate aftermath of the ban being “lifted”. In 2002 the top division “broke away” to form the SWPL with professional football in their long term vision. “Broke away” is in quotes as they continued to be managed by the SWFA, in effect just creating a new top flight that would allow the pyramid to operate for growth in participation below while they strived for professionalism and media attention.
This remains the top division in the country (although it has gone through a number of changes including the introduction of SWPL 2). 2016 saw the introduction of SWPL 2 as a second tier, and the first professional contracts were signed. Lauren Evans and Lauren Coleman of second tier Glasgow Women agreeing professional terms with the club. Three years later there would be a boom in full time contracts with Rangers, Celtic, and Glasgow City moving to full time models. Followed shortly by Hibernian and Hearts.
In 2022 the clubs once again decided change was required to further the aim of growth in pursuit of professional football. This time they would break away from the SWF entirely and join the four men’s leagues as part of the SPFL.
So, Who has Tasted Success?
In the 1970s Stewarton Thistle, Edinburgh Dynamo, and Westthorn United dominated the original women’s football scene. Dynamo and United both dissolved in the 80s, but Stewarton Thistle became Kilmarnock in 1999 and are still going strong.
Motherwell AEI and Whitehill Ladies were the talk of the country in the 80s, and the 90s saw Cumbernauld United and Hutchison Vale take the majority of honours. That takes us past spotty record keeping and into the SWPL era.
Glasgow City are the most decorated side in Scotland, winning 16 SWPL titles, nine Scottish Cups, and six SWPL Cups. Following them are three time league winners Hibernian, who dominated the domestic cups for much of the 2000s and 2010s picking up eight Scottish Cups and seven SWPL Cups.
Kilmarnock are next, now in SWPL 2, they have lifted the league once along with three SWPL Cups, and two Scottish Cups (to go with the two won when they were Stewarton Thistle).
More recently Rangers and Celtic have picked up honours, both winning one SWPL title, one Scottish Cup, and two SWPL Cups.
Players you Need to Know
We don’t have time (and after 2000 plus words we’re sure you’re getting fatigued) to go into detail on every ridiculous pler Scotland has ever seen. But, these are some of the names that you really should know.
The OG
Lily St. Clair
Scorer of the first recorded goal in women’s football history as she made it 1-0 in a 3-0 win over England in 1881. It is hard to know exactly who Lily St Clair was, with some researchers believing her to be ‘Lillian Davis’ of a Nottingham ballet troupe (census records show she was born in Scotland and the ballet troupe was involved in the game). That first international was a game organised by a theatre group to save themselves from mounting debts, a stark contrast to how some view the finances of the women’s game today.
The Trailblazers
Rose Reilly, Elsie Cook, and Edna Neillis
It is impossible to separate the three pioneers who led the fight against the ban in the 1970s, their careers intertwined despite often taking place in different countries and in some cases standing alone in boardrooms of dissenting men.
It was the early days of Stewarton Thistle that would see Reilly and Cook meet. Together they would put Stewarton on the map with Reilly the attacking star while Cook, who self-admits she wasn’t the best technically, held it down at the back and organised those in front of her. A foreshadowing of her influence later as Scotland manager. Together they would make history with Stewarton, winning the first ever Scottish Cup and making it to the first FA Cup final in England as well. Less than a decade after their first meeting Cook would be part of organising the first ever women’s international, against England at Ravenscraig. Reilly would score that day.
In 1972 Cook had retired to focus on administrating the women’s game in Scotland and managing the national team, Reilly moved to Westthorn United in Glasgow where she met Neillis. Two years later, via the sports editor at the Daily Record, the pair would be on trial in France before penning professional deals with Reims. They would move together once more before their journeys took different paths. AC Milan sent scouts to France and bought them on the spot, moving to Italy to play in the San Siro in front of crowds in the tens of thousands. It’d be passed off as unrealistic if it was on the telly, but they lived it.
Both had been playing for Scotland under Elsie Cook’s leadership, but after criticism of the SFA in 1975 the trio were banned “sine die” (fancy speak for indefinitely). For Cook and Neillis this meant there was to be no more international football, Neillis was still playing in Italy but hadn’t taken to the culture quite like Reilly. She was approached to don the Italian blue, culminating in scoring in the 1984 Mundialito final in a 3-1 win over West Germany. Pre-Olympics and official world competition the Mundialito was the de facto World Cup. That year she was voted women’s player of the year by her peers. Two years later she made a substitute appearance in the final win against the USA.
If we had our way all three would be commemorated in statue in view of Hampden. They may not have been the first, but their touch is on every piece of the modern women’s game in Scotland.
Modern Icons
Jo Love
The Glasgow City midfielder has recently returned from an ACL injury that some feared would see the end of her career, but, Jo Love is a fighter. She made her debut in the pre-SWPL era with Kilmarnock and has been a thorn in the side of oppositions ever since.
A combative midfielder, she has racked up almost 200 Scotland caps since making her debut in 2007 at 16. Partnering Leanne Crichton (another City legend) and Leanne Ross (who we are about to speak about) in midfield, she helped define a dynasty for Glasgow City.
Leanne Ross
The aforementioned Leanne Ross became Glasgow City’s manager in 2023, after ending her journey on the pitch two years prior. Mostly a midfielder, she spent time in attack and defence throughout her career in which she earned over a century of Scotland caps. Never letting her own ego get in the way of what her team needed at any given moment.
All of that coming after a broken foot in the early 2000s that had her thinking her chance had gone at international level. Hard work, perseverance, and selflessness were the pillars of her as a player and now make up the cornerstones of her Glasgow City set up.
Joelle Murray
We wrote an entire article dedicated to the Hibernian legend that you can find below. For two decades she was the heartbeat of the Hibs side, a side that would dominate domestic cup competitions and push Glasgow City season on season despite not having much luck in the league title department.
The kind of player an auld guy would turn to you in the pub and say “that’s a proper defender that is, they don’t make them like that anymore”. Hard in the tackle, no-nonsense, and a real leader on the pitch.
The Current Heroes
Cailtin Hayes
The stands of the Excelsior are awash with a sea of pink pre-wrap on matchdays, crowning a generation of future SWPL stars in tribute to Celtic’s centre back giant. She joined Celtic in 2020 and she has quickly become a symbol of the club.
A towering centre back Hayes can do it all. She’s comfortable with the ball at her feet, composed when an attacker runs at her, and last season (2023/24) she was involved in an incredible 21 goals, scoring 14, assisting seven. She truly is one of the best in the division.
Nicola Docherty
‘Nic Doc’ is the embodiment of what Scottish football is all about. Grit, determination, workrate, and a selflessness that has seen her play in just about any position without so much as a frown. predominantly a left sided defender she started her career at Falkirk before a season at the Gers preluded eight years at Glasgow City that would see her win it all and become an established Scotland international.
It was only natural that when Rangers started to invest more in their women’s side they made a return of the childhood fan a priority. She has been bombing up and down the left in blue ever since. Her pinpoint crosses and full-blooded challenges a staple of this era of Rangers.
Hayley Lauder
Glasgow City’s winger, midfielder, and occasional fullback, is a real legend of the modern SWPL. She has been a staple of the league since her debut with Spartans in 2007 (minus a four year spell in Cyprus and Sweden). Now with one of the most historic women’s clubs in the world she has written her name in big bold letters in the book of SWPL history.
The heart of the Glasgow City side, she has represented Scotland on over 100 occasions and her technical prowess is amongst the best the league has ever seen. Often found playing inch perfect passes at Petershill Park.
Read These Next
Fortunately for you we have an extensive (and growing) reading list going into detail on some of the finest people to grace the holy ground of the SWPL. Why not check one (or all) of them out below!
For More Scottish Women’s Football Content
We aren’t the only ones telling the stories of these amazing players, go check out the Sideline Podcast and
for more Scotland-centric coverage.For coverage of football on a more global scale we love Theo Lloyd Hughes’ Squad Depth and
’s writing.