On Thurday afternoon, the 2019/2020 Scottish Women’s Premier League season was declared null and void; something that caught everyone by surprise. However, Glasgow City team coach, Laura Montgomery, said the decision made by the Scottish Women’s Football Association (SWF) “makes complete sense”, even if her team won’t receive their 14th consecutive league title this campaign.
Truth is that just one round of games were played recently, since the term was halted in March. Still, the SWF decided to cancel the competition and prioritise on the players and clubs’s health; something remarkable, seeing how the Covid-19 situation on the United Kingdom and Scotland is. Now, the Scottish Women’s Football are planning how to start a new winter season for the top flight, starting on Sunday, October 18th, and ended it on June 2021.
“I wouldn’t say it was unanimous but it was a majority,” Montgomery said.
“Perhaps those who weren’t 100% for it didn’t really have a view why they weren’t 100%. It was probably the fact the transfer windows didn’t affect them as much as it affected other clubs.
“For the good of the game it makes sense to null and void it.”
The proposed October start date for the new season is now pending government guidance and the Scottish FA lifting their ban on competitions.
Montgomery believed that if City were to win the title in the new 2020/21 season, it would be “ridiculous” for anyone to suggest it wouldn’t be a 14th straight crown.
“I don’t think it’ll be like that,” she said, “That would just be a ridiculous argument because there only was one game. So I could argue against that quite well.”
Rangers, who finished 4th place in 2019, and Celtic, who were 3rd, started the 2020 season as Scotland’s first professional women’s teams. Moreover, the Scottish Women’s League Cup had also yet to reach the quarter-final stage, with Celtic, Hamilton Academical and Hearts having already qualified to join European representatives Glasgow and Hibernian in the last eight.
For that matter, the SWF confirmed a “condensed” League Cup schedule that would take place in May and June next year.
Undoubtedly, hearing this news is sad; to see how women’s games are being cancelled while the men’s, in many countries, still in play. However, women’s football is setting a perfect example of how to act during this pandemic, as men’s players don’t stop getting infected. Still, the women’s game is not over and will return stronger than ever.
WOMEN IN FOOTBALL: THE GLASS CEILING 