Sheila Margaret Begbie (born 1957) is a Scottish former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

and sports administrator who was Director of Domestic Rugby at the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

(SRU) until 2021. She played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Edinburgh Dynamos The Edinburgh Dynamos Ladies Football Club was a leading association football team in Scotland. The club was founded in the 1940s by Linda Clements and Mary Leslie, who had formerly played for the Edinburgh City Girls F.C. The Girls team disbanded ...

and the Scotland women's national team, making 25 international appearances after debuting for Scotland aged 15. She later entered football administration, spending sixteen years as head of Girls' and Women's Football at the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (; also known as the Scottish FA and the SFA) is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility for the control and development of football in Scotland. Members of the SFA incl ...

(SFA) before switching to

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

with the SRU in 2014.

Early life and football career

Sheila Begbie grew up in the

Drylaw Drylaw is an area in the north west of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, located between Blackhall, Edinburgh, Blackhall and Granton, Edinburgh, Granton. It forms the list of community council areas in Scotland, community of Drylaw–Telford. ...

area of

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 ...

and attended Craigroyston High School in the early 1970s. She began playing football and other sports in the street, in an era when this was considered unusual for a girl. At the age of 13, she heard about a local women's football team, Edinburgh Dynamos – one of only eight such teams in Scotland at the time – and began to play in organised football. Aged 15, she made her debut for the Scotland national team in 1973, going on to make 25 appearances as a defender. Her first appearance was in an 8–0 defeat against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in Nuneaton, but she captained Scotland in their first ever win against England, 2–1 in Dundee in 1977. She scored for Scotland and also conceded an own goal in a 3–1 defeat to

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

at the

San Siro San Siro is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy. It has a seating capacity of 75,817, making it the largest stadium in Italy and one of the largest stadiums in Europe. It is the home stadium of the city's principal ...

in September 1974. Although she was later offered opportunities to play semi-professionally in Italy and the United States, Begbie decided to stay in Scotland and concentrate on her career as a physical education teacher. In 1995, she became one of the first Scottish women to obtain an A Licence for coaching.

Administrative career

Begbie was Girls' and Women's Football Co-ordinator with the TeamSport Scotland initiative of

Sportscotland Sportscotland (officially styled sport) (), formerly the Scottish Sports Council, is the national agency for sport in Scotland. The Scottish Sports Council was established in 1972 by royal charter. The body works in partnership with public, ...

prior to becoming Head of Girls' and Women's Football at the

(SFA) in 1998. She was involved in the establishment of the SFA Women's National Performance Centre at the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

. She also worked with

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

in a number of roles, including as head of their Women's Committee and as a Match Delegate. Begbie left the SFA in 2014, switching sports to take up a new appointment with the

(SRU) as Head of Women's Rugby. In 2017 she took up a new role at the SRU, becoming Director of Domestic Rugby, with a remit to develop the sport at grassroots level. She will retire from the SRU in the summer of 2021.

Honours

Begbie was appointed a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(MBE) in the

2001 New Year Honours The 2001 New Year Honours List is one of the annual New Year Honours, a part of the British honours system, where New Year's Day, 1 January, is marked in several Commonwealth countries by appointing new members of orders of chivalry and recipie ...

list, for services to women's football.United Kingdom list:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Begbie, Sheila 1957 births Living people Footballers from Edinburgh Scottish women's footballers Scotland women's international footballers Women association football executives Rugby union executives Members of the Order of the British Empire Women's association football central defenders Date of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Scottish sportswomen