Rutherglen Ladies Football Club was one of the earliest known

women's association football Women's association football, more commonly known as women's football or women's soccer, is the team sport of association football played by women. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries, and about 200 national teams partic ...

teams in Scotland. English teams faced strong opposition by

the Football Association The Football Association (the FA) is the Sports governing body, governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Bailiwick of Guernsey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest footb ...

(FA), who banned the women from using fields and stadiums controlled by FA-affiliated clubs in 1921. Scottish teams did not have this impediment between the wars and they played before thousands in matches that raised money for charities.

Origins

British teams could attract crowds of over 50,000.

FA ban (1921) and Scottish FA position

The popularity of women's team matches led

(FA) to ban women's football at its members' grounds on 5 December 1921. This ban applied only in England and the Scottish FA did not make a similar bar until 20 years later. However the

Scottish FA The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to s ...

refused requests by Scottish clubs Raith Rovers (

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; ; ) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, making it Fife's second-largest s ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and Queen of the South (

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

) to host women's football matches in 1924 and 1925. The resolution passed by the FA's Consultative Committee in England said that after complaints they had decided that the game was "unsuitable for females and should not be encouraged", that they believed that charity matches gave little to charity, and instructed that: "Clubs belonging to the Association refuse the use of their grounds for such matches". Because of the ban, women's games in England were relegated to smaller capacity fields with less resources and exposure.

"World Champions"

Rutherglen Ladies was a team led by founder and manager James H. Kelly and based in

Rutherglen Rutherglen (; , ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having previously existed as a separate Lanarkshire burgh, in 1975 Rutherglen lo ...

near

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. They played at grounds that were outside the remit of the FA's ban and they generally played matches in aid of charities. They were still able to appear at Scottish grounds and they attracted crowds of thousands. In 1923 they were playing matches close to home at

Lanark Lanark ( ; ; ) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, located 20 kilometres to the south-east of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton. The town lies on the River Clyde, at its confluence with Mouse Water. In 2016, the town had a populatio ...

Kilsyth Kilsyth (; ) is a town and civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish in North Lanarkshire, roughly halfway between Glasgow and Stirling in Scotland. The estimated population is 10,380. The town is famous for the Battle of Kilsyth and the religi ...

Linlithgow Linlithgow ( ; ; ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian's county town, reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a historic route between Edi ...

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

and

Carluke Carluke (; ) is a town that lies in the heart of the Lanarkshire countryside in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, northwest of Lanark and southeast of Wishaw. Carluke is largely a commuter town, with a variety of small stores and supermarkets a ...

against a team called the "Cinema Girls". They had a captain named Sadie Smith who was a skilful footballer. In September 1923 Rutherglen played a match against the leading English side Dick, Kerr Ladies at Shawfield Park in Rutherglen. Unusually the Dick, Kerr team was beaten by the Scottish team 2–0. Kelly declared his team "World Champions" following the match. It is speculated that the defeat prevented any rematch as Kerr's team were expected to win their matches. The title of "World Champions" was still used in Dick Kerr's advertising and in 1925 Kerr's team was claiming to be World Champions from 1917 to 1925. Rutherglen played at Dundee United's

Tannadice Park Tannadice Park, officially known as The CalForth Construction Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a football stadium in Dundee, Scotland. It is the home ground of Dundee United F.C., who have played at Tannadice since the club was founded as Du ...

in 1924 before a crowd of 4,000 spectators, demonstrating the SFA ban was not absolute. The account in the ''

Dundee Courier ''The Courier'' (known as ''The Courier & Advertiser'' between 1926 and 2012) is a newspaper published by DC Thomson in Dundee, Scotland. As of 2013, it is printed in six regional editions: Dundee, Angus & The Mearns, Fife, West Fife, Perths ...

'' singled out the performances of captain Sadie Smith and Ms. Crozier. In 1927 Rutherglen went on a tour to Ireland. The team's captain was still Sadie Smith (who researchers later found was the grandmother of musician

Eddi Reader Sadenia "Eddi" Reader Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 29 August 1959) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, known for her work as the lead vocalist of the Folk music, folk and soft rock band Fairground Attraction and for an enduring solo caree ...

)Glasgow's Scottish Football Museum celebrates women's team
Sarah Campbell, Glasgow Times, 5 December 2021 who led the team against an Irish select team whose star was Molly Seaton. The teams had already played four games against each other in Scotland (the fourth match was just over the border into England at Berwick) when the Irish team had been billed as being from

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. The Rutherglen team was disbanded in 1939.

In popular culture

Following research into their history, in 2021 the Scottish Football Museum opened an exhibition dedicated to the Rutherglen club and celebrating how the team had defied the ban 100 years before.New exhibition to pay tribute to Rutherglen's trailblazing female footballers
Jonathan Geddes, Daily Record, 5 December 2021 The exhibition was opened by leading footballer Rose Reilly, Vivienne MacLaren Chairperson of Scottish Women's Football and Eddi Reader.

References

External links

* {{Portal, Women's association football Association football clubs established in 1921 Association football clubs disestablished in 1939 Football in South Lanarkshire 1921 establishments in Scotland Defunct football clubs in Scotland Women's football clubs in Scotland Rutherglen 1939 disestablishments in Scotland