Latest news with #FionaMcIntyre
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Sport
- Daily Mail
'I'm not going to lie ... I look at the Lionesses with jealousy'... SWPL supremo McIntyre admits Scotland needs a national team to capture the imagination
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.' 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. '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. 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).
BBC News
29-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
BBC extends SWPL broadcast deal
Champions Hibernian v Aberdeen and Celtic's trip to face Hearts will be shown live by the BBC on the opening weekend of the SWPL season as part of a new three-year broadcast Alba will show a minimum of 26 SWPL live games - plus at least one SWPL2 match - until the end of the 2027-28 BBC Scotland will continue to deliver live matches via iPlayer, plus the BBC Sport website and app, as well as the weekly highlights show on the BBC Scotland channel on Monday season gets under way on Sunday, 17 August and BBC Alba have live coverage of Hibs against Aberdeen (16:10 BST) while Hearts host Celtic (Kick-off time tbc) on iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app."We are delighted to announce the renewal of our partnerships with BBC Alba and BBC Scotland," said Fiona McIntyre, SWPL managing director."Both have been excellent partners of the women's game in Scotland for a number of years now, and we are delighted that fans of the SWPL will continue to be able to follow the best of the league action for the next three years."
The National
29-06-2025
- Sport
- The National
Leanne Ross on top flight reduction to help Scots thrive in Europe
SWPL managing director Fiona McIntyre is hoping that the restructure can ultimately lead to a fully professional top tier but in terms of short-term goals, Ross can see the immediate benefit to fewer games. 'You definitely do see it at points when there are three game weeks in the season,' she said. 'At City we have worked really hard to manage the workload in terms of what we do off the park and with recovery but I do think that having fewer games definitely helps. 'If you have teams competing in the Champions League, which is obviously the highest level that you can get in club football, then not having such a hectic schedule to contend with can help you spread the load.' City will hope to make it back into the Champions League this term with the competition restructured to mirror that of last season's men's competition. It is an arduous road to get there with the non-champions route always particularly fraught. Last term Rangers drew eventual winners Arsenal at the qualification stage and while City's pairing against Austria Vienna – and then Minsk should they negotiate the first hurdle - is not quite so daunting, it is no walk in the park. Quarter-finalists twice, they lost to Brann two seasons ago the last time they were in the competition. 'I think it could have been a harder draw when you look at the teams that were in there,' said Ross. 'It is a difficult pathway to reach the league stage of the competition and we are well aware of that. 'But there is a huge prestige that goes with playing Champions League football, as this club well knows. We can't be looking too far ahead of ourselves. It is important that we just focus on each game as it comes rather than imaging the scenario of being in there.' Ross, meanwhile, has revealed that while there is much to excite City in the coming season, they cannot proceed without a look over their shoulder. Runners up to Hibs in the league, City brought the curtain down on the campaign with a limp 3-0 defeat to Rangers in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden to ensure they ended the season trophyless for a second successive season. 'It is always difficult when you finish off the season with a defeat like,' said Ross. 'There is no game to prepare for and so no way to get it out of your system. 'The players all disperse for international commitments and holidays so it does stay with you. 'We don't shy away from that. I have looked back on it and when the players are back in for pre-season it is something that we will analyse again because it is important that you reflect on it. 'But these are the positions that we want to be in. We want to be competing in finals and challenging for titles. It is always going to be the ambition of this club.' And Ross is also confident that there will be new faces as City look towards the new season. 'That work is always ongoing, it doesn't just start when the season ends and the window opens,' she said. 'We are always working on identifying players and preparing not just for this window but for the next one as well. 'I'm confident that when the season starts we will be in a good position in terms of where the squad is. 'It is always exciting looking towards a new campaign and this is no different. Our targets are always to go and be as successful as we can be. That has also been the approach from City.'
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
SWPL of 10 launched to realise full-time 'dream'
Managing director Fiona McIntyre hopes this season's slimmed down Scottish Women's Premier League structure will go a long way to realising her "dream" of a totally full-time top believes it would be an "incredible achievement" if an all full-time division was achieved by 2035 - before a potential shared home nations World Cup."I think that's the dream scenario," McIntyre told BBC Scotland as fixtures for the 10-team league - two fewer than last season - were was only in recent years that Celtic, Heart of Midlothian, current champions Hibernian and Rangers created professional sides to challenge the dominance of the independent Glasgow City. "Even if you look back three years, when we set the SWPL up, I don't think many would have comprehended that we'd be sitting with five full-time clubs already," McIntyre said."The absolute ambition is to have a full-time league, but it has to be a full-time sustainable league for our clubs and that's the challenge, because it costs significant money for clubs to go full-time."The slimmed down SWPL is designed to make fixtures more competitive each will again play one another once home and away before the league split, but whereas last season, when it was two sections of six, this time it will be a top six and bottom the top half play for the title and Champions League qualification for the remaining home and away games, the bottom four will battle to avoid relegation, with the bottom side relegated and the ninth-placed team taking part in a one-off play-off final against the promotion play-off winner from means the top six will play 28 league fixtures and the bottom four will play 24 fixtures compared to 32 last term."The number of games we have, particularly in SWPL 1, is particularly high," McIntyre explained. "We have more games than any other league in Europe at the moment."Also, the competitiveness of our games is a challenge. Pre-split in SWPL 1, the data shows us probably what we've all seen anecdotally, which is we don't have as competitive fixtures as we would like."The upside is that, post-split, we have the most competitive league in Europe, so it's trying to marry all of those things together."The new format also takes into consideration changes to world governing body Fifa's international calendar - and data designed to compare alternative league sizes."From 2026, some of the international windows will run over consecutive weekends, so we lose weekend dates to our calendar," McIntyre pointed out."We essentially ran some algorithms to work out, if we stayed at 12, what difference does that would make if we change the format. If we go to 10, if we go to eight, how does that affect that goal differential in terms of competitiveness - and what we landed on was 10."That was the optimum that allowed us to deliver more competitively but also retaining a significant number of games whilst reducing it down enough that it allows us to account for the changes that are coming to the calendar."McIntyre points out that a smaller bottom half of the SWPL will reduce the number of meaningless games at the end of the season, while there will be increased competition at the top of SWPL2, with sides finishing second, third and fourth involved in promotion play-offs.
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
SWPL post-split fixtures announced
The post-split fixtures have been announced in the SWPL, with the the big three avoiding each other on the final day of the Rangers will end their campaign with a visit from title challengers Hibernian, who are aiming for their first SWPL title since final round of top six fixtures, which sees Celtic welcome Motherwell and Glasgow City host Hearts, will be played on Sunday 18 in the bottom six, Montrose will be hoping they can accrue enough points to drag Spartans and Aberdeen into the relegation zone - which features three teams before next year's re-formatting of the the final day of the season, the Mighty Mo are at home to Dundee United, Queen's Park host Aberdeen, and Spartans welcome Partick Managing Director, Fiona McIntyre, said: "The ScottishPower Women's Premier League has become renowned in recent years for tight title races and incredible final day drama, so we are delighted to reveal the post-split fixtures today which set the stage for what we anticipate will be another epic race to the title. "Incredibly the 2024/2025 season looks set to eclipse anything we have seen before, with an unprecedented four clubs currently on 51 points after 21 matches."
