Alex Scott speaks about limited opportunities in the Women’s game after being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Alex Scott says players from different backgrounds are getting fewer opportunities to make it in women’s football.
Growing up on a poverty estate, the former England and Arsenal defender claims she would have had difficulty getting to the top of the game today.
Scott, 40, played 140 games for her country and won 21 trophies with the Gunners after joining them when she was eight years old.
She worries that because of the growing number of out-of-town academies, inner-city girls now have less opportunities because it is more difficult to commute to training.
“I was lucky,” Scott said. “I came from a council estate where I had a youth worker who saw me and used to drive me to Arsenal. As we are trying to progress the game, we took it out of urban areas.
“In this period there is no way with my mum that I would be able to get the bus all the way to Hertfordshire and get to training. It’s important the FA have recognised that we are trying to develop the women’s game, but in that we are giving less opportunities to everybody.
“Football is for everyone. Everyone should have an equal opportunity and that is what it needs to be taken back to. My responsibility is to continue to highlight important things like that.”
In order to make sure that players from all backgrounds have a route to senior football, the Football Association reviewed the women’s game’s structure between 2020 and 2023.
As a result, last October, a new strategy for women’s football was revealed. The FA listed four goals in it, one of which was to provide equal playing chances for girls and women during the following four years.
The FA has pointed out that during the last four years, there has been a notable increase in the number of women and girls participating in football.
In the BBC’s 2022 documentary The Future of Women’s Football, Scott discussed a number of subjects, including his worry about the lack of diversity in the sport.
Teams have come under fire at the club and international levels for having too few Asian, Black, and ethnic minority players. While England manager Sarina Wiegman earlier stated that she hoped to see a talent pool that might “represent more the diversity of our community,” former Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall stated that the problem “was a problem.”
Scott said the steps in place are positive, but there is still progress to be made.
“When I did the documentary it was important for me to raise that point,” she said.
“We need to do something so I can continue to shout about it, but actually you have to make people responsible. That is when the FA look at themselves. Are they doing something now? Yes, but we need to measure it and say: ‘What are you doing? Is it going to be good enough?’
“It is something we can measure in the next couple of seasons to say: ‘Are you giving everyone a fair chance?'”