Latest / A Level Playing Field / Rose Reilly: A Pioneer’s Story of Breaking Barriers I A Level Playing Field I Episode 16

Transcript

Rose Reilly: A Pioneer’s Story of Breaking Barriers I A Level Playing Field I Episode 16 · A Level Playing Field

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to a level playing field, sponsored by Nutmeg Magazine, the Scottish Football Quarterly.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_02: If you're looking for your next great football read, the World Cup special issue of Nutmeg Magazine is available to purchase now.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: You can order your copy at nutmegmagazine.co.uk to enjoy stories from Scotland's adventures on the greatest stage.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, welcome.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Cheryl Smith and joined as ever by my strike partner here, Alison McConnell, the busiest woman in Scottish football.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's just been the international break, Alison.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if you know the meaning of the word break, do you?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: No, it never ends.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is a continuous cycle of work.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, better to be busy, I suppose.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, we've been working in football for a long time, and this word icon, it gets thrown around all over the place weekly, but it's safe to say we're joined by a real genuine icon, one of Scotland's greatest of our footballers, Rose Riley, is with us this week on the podcast.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Rose, so delighted that you're here.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I really get very this excited for a for a guest.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But we've been trying to get you on and we really wanted to get you on since this podcast started.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much for taking a slice of your time out to speak to us today.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay, it's a pleasure for me to be here and uh meet Cheryl and Alison.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: I hope it's going to be I hope we're going to have a blast.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: We will.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: We will.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a I have to say as well, we're filming this podcast in Nother than the Rose Riley pub in Glasgow.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: You have had an MBE glittering career with trophies and medals, Scottish Football Hall of Fame.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if having a Glasgow pub named after you is just one of those things that's a rite of passage for a Scottish person.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh uh according to a lot of people I meet you, usually guys in Glasgow, um that is the Hall of the Dale.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've been a pub named after you in Glasgow.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's you.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Keep your medals.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: You've actually shoved a lot.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a pub named after you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is not a this is not an episode of This Is Your Life, but I do want to take you back.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: You were born and raised in Stewarton in East Ayrshire, uh one of eight siblings.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um what do you remember back then where your love of football came?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Were you in like a football family?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Did you have there was a lot of people around you that were into football?
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Where did it come because of a real obsession for you?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I was three years of age, uh, told by my mum I wandered away from the family home and she found me at the local football park, uh, which is now the State of the Art Rose Rayleigh Sports Centre.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I went full circle from playing at that ground with ash, with glass in it, I've still got some glass in my knees to prove it, um, to it being called the State of the Art Rose Riley Sports Centre.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: So that was a big ping.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: So after um about five years of age, and we wrote our letters to Santa Claus and asked for a football, but I got the usual doll, um, and I was raging outside to plug my doll.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: And this wee boy had a ball and asked him to swap, and he regularly agreed.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'd love to know who that ye guy was nowadays.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder if he's still got my my doll.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Did he agree or was it I don't think he had an option, but anyway.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: It was a wee bit grab here, you can take mine.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um so uh I slept with the football under my pillow for two reasons.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: First, because I was in love with it, and secondly, I was afraid my mum would take it off me because she didn't want me to play at football because we girls didn't play at football, it was unknown of in in the days.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: I my big brother would kick the ball a boot now and again, but um there's about ten years between us, and so there but there was nobody really that uh that I could follow my fan that played at football.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: So when I was about six, uh always around the park uh playing with the boys.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: The the the coach of the uh Stuart and Boys Club, John Roy, asked me if I would play with a Stuart and Boys Club.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, of course.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: He says, You'll need to go to the barbers and got a boys' haircut, short back and sides, change your name from Rose to Ross, and you'll need to you'll need to get changed at home because you can't come in the dressing rooms.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to the the the barbers, um Davy Hewitt from Stuarton, and I went into the barbers and I said uh my mum said that after a boy's haircut she'll come and feed you later because I didn't have any money.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I went into the barbers as Ross and come out as Ross.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um went up the road and my mum took me back down and nearly killed me and the barber.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And if there's any hues listening to this, my mummy still hasn't paid.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, yeah, you ought some money.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so then I started playing with Stuart and Boys Club, and there was a certain game where I ran riot and I scored eight goals, and there was a Celtic scout there who wanted to send we boys in S forms, school forms to start our football career with Celtic.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: So um the Celtic Scout had said to the the manager, I want to sign that wee number seven, and they say he says, No, it's a wheelassie.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: He said, No, the one that scored all the goals, he says it's still a wheel asset.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I spoke to the Celtic Scout and I was gutted.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: I thought if I was good enough, why can I not play for Celtic?
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: So two years ago I got summoned to Parkhead, Celtic Park, and um they asked me if it uh to be the Celtic women's ambassador, which was a dream come true for me because um I followed the women, the girls obviously, and uh big fan.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So they gave me a presentation box and then it was a scarf, Celtic scarf, in the hoops jersey with number seven in the back and Riley written on it, and they said, Sorry, we're 60 years late.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you signed for Celtic.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Ah that's amazing.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: That was an emotional moment.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was that's amazing.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: See when you see your mum and dad, what were they like?
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um what were they like to people and what they like?
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: How did they deal with you and your your just total obsession with making football a career?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because it must have been we're thinking back to a time when that obviously wasn't on as such, so what what were they like?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um I I don't think my dad had much saying it, and he was quite a placid person and he was at work all the time, but my mum was a really strong woman, but when I um I looked back to I had seven like brothers and sisters who all obeyed the rules, and I was the only one that that um that didn't fit in the square box.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so she'd have had time with me, and I just didn't listen.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: My focus was on playing football and nothing was going to stop me.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I didn't really have a safe place uh at home, obviously.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um safe place like uh a football place, and my safe place was myself and my desire to play at football.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I started playing, I started going to um when I started primary school to go to the vs.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Colmar as a Catholic, the Catholic school was in Colmar, and I went to St.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Flamda's uh primary school.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: So there was uh the wee boys' playground, it was separate for the wee girls, and we weren't allowed to interact in each other's playground as it wasn't the done thing.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So the first day I was there, the wee boys were playing at the football at the lunch break, and I went to play with them.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And after that I got physically punished, you get the belt then in the days, and then I cried for two reasons.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: One because it was so insight, because a wee boy was laughing at me.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's when I decided at five years of age that emotion was a weakness.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't gonna show emotion anymore.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So every day I went in that playground, every day I played football, and every day I got belted for it.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I did cry.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: And until one day the headmaster said, You're never gonna learn Rose Riley.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, sir, it shouldn't, that's never gonna learn.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to play football, I'm not doing anything wrong.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: So everything was difficult for me, um, but I didn't see it as a difficulty.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I just seen it, as I've said before, as like a hurdle.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't jump over it, whatever happened in my life, I didn't jump over it, got around it, it got under it, I just smashed it down to realise my dream.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm amazed by how in the at the time that you went abroad, how you heard of it, how like when we think of the world now, like information is so readily available.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: You jump on Google and you do a quick search and you find out a ton of information within seconds about something.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: If you go back to when you at 17 decided that you were moving abroad, where did all that information come from?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: How did you learn that there was going to be a pathway to climb football?
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I didn't, I didn't know that.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um because as you said, there was no information.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: So my information came from the back page of the Daily Record because my dad was reading the Daily Record and I was kneeling down reading the football page, the back page, and they were speaking about the the the Champion, but it wasn't the Champions League in the days, it was the European Cup, European Games, and it was like the Armor Dry Day, C Milan or whatever.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Erm and the journalist that signed it was uh uh Stanley Shivers.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I thought I wonder if Stan knows if there's any female professional teams.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So up to De La Record and erm I always remember getting the bus from Stewart, and I went on morning, whatever, and uh the bus stops at Anderson Key and I thought they've spelled that rhyme because it was spelled in a coup.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: Probably that that was my first main feel.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um that since I got expelled from school, St.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Joseph's secondary school in Colmarnock for cool football, I didn't have an education.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I got expelled from school.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I get bailed, I get bullied, I get expelled from school.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: I got a job, I didn't have any other skills, so I had a job in a carpet factory in Colmarnock, D BMK.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: And um the the guys had a football team and at lunchtime they would cross the road over to Howard Park, Colmarnock to play football, and they asked me if I play with them.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I honed a lot of my skills because they'd on big steel cap boots and they were just getting hammered into each other, with me included, I mean I could treat it one of them and that's the way I preferred it.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I played with them at lunchtime, and uh there was one particular game, there was uh another factory uh team meeting to go on to play after us, and it was the Johnny Walker whiskey bond.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And they said, Will you play with us Rose?
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Of course, and I never went back to my work.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I played for the Johnny Walkers, went back to my work and I got the sack.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's a common scene here.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: So uh went back and uh I had to tell my mum again, she nearly killed me, um, that I've got the sack because it's this what happened.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought my mum doesn't understand.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I was playing for the Johnny Walkers for Skip on the Real Madrid of the factory teams.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you understand what I'm doing?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why after that, so I'd I'd get uh expelled, sacked, bullied, belted, you name it, uh that there was uh that would be 16 or barely 17 that I had to take up um a stance of my own actions and try and be a professional footballer.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: But I'd played for Scotland, I'd start out of a league in Scotland, I'm jumping for one thing, fan, and I hope you don't mind.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, there was no women's football at the start in Scotland, you weren't allowed to play, but then there was a few, there was um there were 35 wool factories in Stuartham, um, and there was buses of women coming from all over the valleys that Guls and Colman and whatever to work in the wool factories, and they had a netball team.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh somebody said, Why don't you start up a football team just for a charity event?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: We'll get some funds for charity.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: So they started up this women's football team, Stuart and Thistle, and in Stuarton.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I I what I'd heard about, I I lived at the football park, so I was there anyway, and this is what was happening.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh about seven at the time, I was a wee boy, Ross, right?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: My dodgy haircut.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: I went up to one of the women in charge and I said, Could I get a game used?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, No, you're a wee boy.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's women's football.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, No, I'm a wee lassie.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're too young anyway, come back in two years' time.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: So two years and half a second later, I was back.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And at nine years of age, I was playing with Stuart and Women, Stuart and Tussle.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're having to pretend to be a wee boy to play for the team that you're playing for, then you try to play a women's team and they say no, because you're a wee boy.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like I confessed.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's all involved now, it's a gender issue.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I would have been anything.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Did it a game of football?
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had no issues.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: I had a win, whatever you want, a wee boy or a real ass.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't bother me.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's just the way I was.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I wasn't phased by any of this.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: We always like you don't mind me saying you've got you've obviously got a kind of a rebellious streak in you, and a a spade is a spade type thing.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Were you always like that?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or was it constantly being told no or everywhere?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Did that like strengthen your resolve to just you wanted to do what you wanted to do because everyone was telling you no everywhere you turned?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, it wasn't because that they were telling me no, it was because they were telling me no, I couldn't be a footballer.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's different.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't other aspects of life.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: That was the same year as well.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, it was I was focused on my football uh and that that was it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um so when we started playing in in Scotland, there were various teams set up, starting up from Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, just with the the uh a normal league.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the SAFA uh didn't recognise women's football.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: So we were we kinda uh we just funded ourselves with apples and whatever minibuses to get where we were.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Then England uh women they'd set up a team as well uh and a league, um, and they wanted to play an international match with uh Scotland.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: But we the SFA didn't allow us to play in recognised pitches, but to play in council parks.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we couldn't have a recognised referee, it wasn't allowed, women's football wasn't allowed.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: So we played in the Ravenscraig Stadium in Greenock, our first international, because the Ravenscraig uh Stadium in Greenock was owned by the council uh and still is by the so the SAG didn't have any power over that.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I played Scotland, my first international days to England, and it was the first time we played where there was a stand, a proper football ground.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was I just let a man and a duck that watched us playing at football in where local football park uh pitches.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a great event with it piped on and whatever, and had the Scotland strip on for the first time.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was one of the proudest moments of my life, and uh we went one thing up, we Mary Carr scored with a header, and then I scored the second goal, and I just wanted the referee to blow the fuss off and say Scotland beat.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna Rose Riley scored, you know, I finished my career, my man, mummy, the lionesses were beaten, and but that wasn't the case.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: There are no um three two winners in England uh they were stronger, they had more resources than us, but it was a great advert for the women's game in in Scotland.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Were you going also at that time to see Celtics men's team?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you go on to see them play?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of what was your memories of that?
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Memories of that, I had a paper round and I delivered milk in the morning, anything to fund my football, like buying boots or some or whatever to fund my passion.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the there was a business that used to go by the the the the Wee Streets in Stewart and it would give me up the back roads to go to Glasgow, it'd take forever because it stopped at every tree, done locked, locked and forever to get to Glasgow and I had money in my pocket because of my paper round and I didn't tell any, I'm sure it would be about 12, 13, and I decided I was going to see Celtic play.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: So off I goes, but I didn't even know where I was going.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um but all the men were walking towards Parkhead.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: Always from Anderson Key, that's my kind of key point or wherever the bus terminus was.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now I had Celtic scarves once I just followed them.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: Just followed them to Parkhead, and uh there were no girls there, there were no women there or whatever.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: But I was still the V-boy, I was still Ross.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of got left down Mr.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: I straight in front of the jungle.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's where I was, and I could actually touch Junkie Johnson.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's time for our player of the week, sponsored by Nutmeg Magazine, the home of brilliant football stories.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Check out the latest issue at nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: This week's player of the week goes to Ranger Striker Katie Wilkinson after her hat trick for Rangers against Celtic at New Douglas Park on Monday night.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: The striker netted a trail of goals to take Leanne Cricht inside within one point of League Leaders' hearts and take them ahead of Glasgow City for the first time this season.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: That was our Nutmeg Magazine player of the week.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more great football writing and to order the latest issue, visit nutmegmagazine.co.uk.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: The jungle was so near the football pitch in the days.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's when I've I fell in love first of all with with Celtic and uh Jimmy Johnson for the skills that he had.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: It was just so amazing.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I always remember that the the whiskey bottle getting passed in through the jungle with the men.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um nobody took more than they should have.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: There was quite a lot of Conrad shit and whatever.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: But everybody was just peeing everywhere.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um that that's just the way it was in the days.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there was no women's toilet, they didn't know I was a wee girl anyway, but that's just the way it was in the days.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Even when I went to Hamden to see the Scotland games, it was the same.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's just the way it was.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I used to go to Ibrooks as well.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Used to go to Ibrooks because uh when Celtic went play at home, it was Jim Baxter, Willie Henderson.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I just love football.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So you're at uh Celtic Park or Ibrooks or Hamden, whatever it is, with the whiskeys getting passed around.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh people are peer everywhere, and your mum and dad are in the house, no idea that you're there.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: Not a scoopy.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I remember going home um and uh my dad was sitting chair at a desert Saturday evening, and he'd say they'd chop me 50 peer, about half a crown then.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Rose I wing at the evening times, and by the way, Celtic won the day.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I got my football and it's about I don't know about a mile, but it's up and down we stairs I've had to go to the newsagents, do my keepy office, keeping up, keepy up.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: Never dropped a ball.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um goes into the news agents, you know.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: I hear always Riley, get that bloody ball out of here.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Um not knowing I wasn't gonna break in and because I was in charge of my ball, missus.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can do this.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Uh good evening times, and uh off I went to give my dad his football paper.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Alison had obviously mentioned it earlier when you moved 1973, you moved to France.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: What was that like when you moved there and you were you were playing football professionally in a completely different country and culture in a way for your family at a time when obviously there was no community social media, right?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like you couldn't contact people.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you highlight?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Your performance probably do have a phone, like you can't it's not even like you can go to a phone box and full home, like you're incommunicado.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, um whit the nice complimente, complimented Now you got a spice.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Don't don't push your nut ass um with all this bilingual stuff.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, um Stan Shivers, the Daily Record uh um said that he would look out uh for uh see if there was any professional uh women's team because I said uh that that that was my dream to be a professional footballer.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um you need to find a teammate, you're too young to go on your own.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: So one of Scotland's most uh finest players, female players, it was Edna Nealers, she played for West Thorne, and I was playing for West Thorne at the time as well.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um I said, uh do you want to come to France to play football, Edna?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, but they don't speak English over there as near the week, basically it's nine on the week.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um she I said that's international language of football.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: So the Daily Record flew us over to France and uh decided as at halftime.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: So Daily Web paid for your funds?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they sponsors us.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um so because back home, finally tell my mum and dad that was me, I was going to be a professional footballer.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of same professional in France, but we were professional because we were in a foreign country.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um I think my mum and dad were just glad to get rid of me.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: We'd buy Rose Chow or Evadirche, we'll take it to the airport.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: No, now that I'm my mum, I know that wasn't the case, but um so off we goes to France and playing in France and about four to five uh months down the line in AC Milan bought us.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: There was a scout there from AC Milan.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So off we goes to Milan, and I didn't tell my parents that changed country.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that's just a detail.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um so um I also remember getting going across the town market leaning at the airport, bang in the middle of Milan.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just felt at home and it had no um I I I had nothing to do with Italy and um from Irish origin or whatever, Scottish through and through.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I just felt at home in Italy, I let a mother's embrace or lit Macy, slap in the back of the head for my mum just to let her know that let me know that she was She was uncharged, kind of thing.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: So the first game at San Ciro, the magnificent San Ciro Stadium.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: Majestic San Ciro Stadium.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So all my teammates were in the dressing rooms and I wandered onto the pitch lunch room.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought, I went to one goal post and I thought I'm gonna score here and take possession of the full pitch and I'm gonna score at other goals.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then it all got too much for me because it was held 80,000 spectators, massive.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I closed my eyes and I thought it's only two goal posts in a football, just like being back with Stuart.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how I dealt with it.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: I said, deal with it, Rose.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: After Edna gets homesick and goes back home.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm staying in the hotel on my own for a year in Milan.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to speak to myself in the mirror at night.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: Never in a sad way.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: My way of coughing because my teammates didn't speak English, I didn't speak Italian.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_01: So the next day I bought a dictionary and I thought I'm gonna learn three words a day.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm gonna learn three words a day, I'm too thick for four.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: But here I wasn't a thick, I just wasn't educated in a thick-topper language, you know, right away.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: So you taught yourself Italian?
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, just to buy a paper, like and then just pick out the stuff.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I bought, like I said, to do no sport, um big pink newspaper.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't even a s like a sports newspaper, it was a daily football paper, because Italians football's religion there, so I felt at home there uh in a way.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um then eventually I dropped my letter to my mum and dad, by the way, I'm in Italy.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just in case you come and visit me in France.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Did your mum and dad ever get they come over to Italy uh after when they heard that I'd move country because they must have been afraid that what's what's happening here?
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I think they were quite proud and whatever what I was doing, but I can imagine they'd be of our generation that would find it quite difficult to tell you that.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: You would maybe hear it through different ways hear it through behaviours rather than through words.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, I wouldn't I wouldn't hear it or or behaviour, nothing.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh not at the time.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, not really.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, but that that that didn't matter.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um so uh my career was thriving in Italy, um winning quite a lot of cups and whatever, league titles, and in the meantime I got communication from the SFA that was banned for life for playing for Scotland and playing in Scotland with no with no reason.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: There was no reason, there was nothing said about it.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: But as I said, it was faceless men in suits that decided this young Scottish athlete, how dare she try and bet her herself and banned for life.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: They used the word sin-died at the time.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_02: How do you feel now?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because it would be easy to be bitter.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: I think like when you get to your age now and how celebrated you have become, like you are really regarded as uh an iconic figure within the story of Scottish football.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: You've been celebrated by the SFA, you've been celebrated at the Hall of Fame, you've been celebrated at Celtic Park.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be very easy to be bitter when it got when all this came at a point when your career had ended, like all this acceptance and adulations didn't exist when you were at in your prime, incapable of going and and and playing.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: How have you processed that?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think, I just do.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not a thinker.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't process.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And as I said before, emotions of weakness, I've never felt bitter against them.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was never angry, even when I got that that communication.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh if there's if somebody makes a decision that I'm not in power of, I just walk away.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have I don't have any no emotions against it.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: There was nothing I could do about it, it wasn't my decision.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: But when it goes full circle like that, when you go back, when you went back to the SF, when you went to Hamden that night to say here's Rose Rayleigh being accepted and inducted into the the Scottish Hall of Fame.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: What would three mind?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dancer.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: What went through my mind?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing personal, it wasn't a personal thing.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: If the um that I was in the hall of fame, I was doing it for the Scottish girls.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that that I was really proud that I could be and I had more visibility and I could be a voice for the Scottish girls and women.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Before we we started filming, you were telling us that uh you'd been out in Edinburgh just uh chatting to some of the the young girls at the Edinburgh primary school, like uh we knew they'd won the the the cup, the regional cup, and the boys had been presented the last summer with this huge big trophy and the girls got this paltry small trophy, and one of the kids I think had um had taken it upon herself to go and highlight it and it was corrected, so you'd gone out to speak to them.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think now when you see kids of this generation and in the world that's potentially in front of them for anyone who has a talent and an aptitude to go and play?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: What do you what do you think your role has been in part of all that?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think my my role is uh paving the way, being a pioneer, opening up the streets for them, uh letting them know that if you want to be a female footballer, you actually can.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did it against the odds.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have to do it against the odds.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: I was explaining to them, they were there with the wee dodgy trophy that they'd given, and I said, look, your achievement is not in the size of the trophy, it's in what you've achieved.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So they've been on the BBC, they've been doing interviews, if they gives them a cup, now they've got cups everywhere because everybody wants to say, look, here's a bigger cup, here's a bigger cup.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I said they so eventually use have won.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think it's important for this generation?
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Especially like just we're talking about pre-minute school kids, is it important for them to know that women weren't allowed to play for both?
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, without knowing the history, there's no future.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: They have to know that.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: They have to have the knowledge of what a boo peg the way uh before them.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: And and and it'll give them a wee bit more uh strength, inner strength or whatever to achieve their dreams as well.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_02: Do you ever think what might have been?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, do you ever think what would it be like to be a player in 2026?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um I got interviewed by I love when I got interviewed by uh Sky Television based in London, uh, when the Lionesses were playing in in the World Cup and whatever.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: And they what they want to do their Zoom and interview me instead of an English player.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I always rock up my Scotland strip on and they always underline, oh, you've got on your Scotland strip, I am Scottish again.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it was like the World Cup, and they were saying, I was at the Euros at the time, and they said, Oh, here she has with her Scotland strip on.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um what was it?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: They asked if if I was rooting for England or whatever.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: I says, I as long as I'm not playing again in Scotland or Italy.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: They said, Oh, you're not rooting for England?
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: I said, funny enough, they've never asked me to play for them.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: So no.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: So no.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And then they said it was a man and a woman that was interviewing.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: The lady said to me, Are you not um jealous or angry, Rose?
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because some of the INS's are getting a million pounds ahead to um advertise Nike sports prize.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Does that not make you that you were at the top of your career and you didn't get these offers?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I said to her, Have you got any kids?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Yes too.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Um, are you jealous of them?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: She says, No, I says, They're my kids.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's what you've left.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's a legacy that you've passed on.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: See, when you uh think back to your your time in Italy, I find this quote and I hope it's real because it's so good.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to read it to you just to say it was uh my motto was when in Rome, do as the Romans do.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was being wined and dined in restaurants all over Italy.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Previously, the only place I'd been to was the Chippy in Stewarton.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's I really hope that's true because it's tremendous, and also it just kind of highlights that when you went there, the huge difference in the culture and the the language, and everything must have been different, and especially back then when the world was a smaller place.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever feel overwhelmed at all going to a new place and on your own, and you know, you're having to learn the language and all these all these new things all at once and play football?
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: Not because I was living the dream.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'd strived, um, I didn't know if it would be Italy or whatever, but uh my dream is to be a professional footballer.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, being in the temple at that time, women's football, the biggest place to be in was Italy for the women's game.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um so I was there.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: I got asked to play for Italy because the the the SFA'd bang me for life.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was living the dream there, so everything it was it was a big adventure for me.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: A fantastic adventure.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: What was there was nothing not to like or whatever.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: What was your pinch me moment?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: What was your moment in Italy where you just thought, wow, like how far I've come from kicking a ball about in my lunch break from the carpet factory or being belted at school for for playing with the boys, like look where I am.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's when I won the won the Alito for Italy when they asked me to play for Italy.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: That was the like the unofficial World Cup at the time.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was two moments, and then I played in an international tournament in China with 90,000 folk there, and they they named me as the best female footballer in the world.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I said to myself, no bad for a way, Larsey for Stuart.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a shame you never did social media back then.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: You'd quite like to tag your old school, wouldn't you?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_02: You'd quite like to be able to tag people and say, Where are you?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because here's we like a loser.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Did you ever bump into anyone for like when you came back for a couple of days or you came back almost like to see your family like you did?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um that this is a strange one.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's sad in a way, but but it just kind of sums it up, it's life basically.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: So in 2000, I come back um from my mum's ill health.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: She had a severe stroke and they gave her a week to live.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I promised I hated my mum when I was growing up.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: I hated her because she didn't want me to play at football, but it was just a niche thing.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously I didn't hate her.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And she asked me, she says, she was lying like in a cot bed in Everton Central, and she said, Don't leave me, Rose, I'm afraid.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: I says, I promise I wouldn't leave her, because the doctors said, you know, a week to live.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_01: Nine years later I was still here.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'd get married when I was 43 in Italy.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'd met my husband from uh Buenos Aires, he was an Argentinian doctor, sports doctor, and I'd met him there, and um I'd fell in love with Norberto because he spoke Italian like Maradona something.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: That was it.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't matter.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: Anything else, that was me.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: And then not reading the rule books once again.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: I gave birth to my daughter when I was 45, Valentina Bella.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I come back to Scotland then um to look after my mum.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: So there was one uh there was one particular day in in Irving Central, and she was in the the kind of lounge and she was sitting beside this man.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Not sitting beside them, the two of them were in wheelchairs, just um uh kind of disabled, just the way you're kind of hanging after wheelchairs.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I went up to my mum and the man said Rose, Rose Riley, and I said yes, but I just thought it was a football fan.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was the headmaster that expelled me from St.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Joseph's school.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: And what did he say to the tears in his eyes?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was his chat.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have chat when you're not nursing all file.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Come on, Alison.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: You need to rephrase that one, and he said he apologised for expelling me, but he had no other option.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was all the other teachers that were against me because I I was I was just uh missing all that that the how would you say other lessons just to play at football because whatever boys' team were playing, they just used to call me to play, so that that was it.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he said it was it was biggest regret, and I just gave him my cuddle and I said, uh, what was this?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: You must have hated me as an Oscar, but you'll need to watch out for the person sitting beside you.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Are you aware that's my mum sitting there?
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my mum just kind of drew my stinker, so she knew damn well who it was.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that that was a surreal moment.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: That that that I mean that that was a full circle.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you wonder what is it all about, this telling people they can't do something.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: Why?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't we do it?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um well in the days that um Scotland was well not just Scotland, well, I I would speak about Scotland because very male chauvinist, and women um weren't allowed to do a lot of things.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: So the other week, the other month there um they asked me to go along to speak to the the professional golfers, uh women golfers at West Co Bride Golf Club.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: So off I went and a lot of them were young, but there was a table there about 80-year-olds.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I was telling their story and whatever, and they were they they thought this was amazing what I'd done against the odds.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I was speaking to one particular lady, she was 81, of course.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: They weren't allowed to play golf, but they could once the men had finished and that the the course was all cut up or whatever, they were nearly allowed in the club rooms and whatever.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the sad thing about this, you see, I got angry about other thoughts, I don't get angry about myself.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: That lady was a nurse, and she turned 18 and she got married, and she had to give up her career being a nurse because she got married.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_01: That is shocking in this day and age.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about Scotland here.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: This this is I mean it's just disgraceful.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to rectify it.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: We have to support our women more, but more so we have to support our girls that the world is changing.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: But we are the ones that have to make it change.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just sit back and hope that it changes or hope somebody you read your story and said, Oh, that's good.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: It can't always be me that's telling them you change your story, that you need to do it yourself.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm curious too, how when you came back to Stuarton, when you were overturning, if you came back to Stuarton for I don't know, holidays or visits or whatever, how was it to come back to uh an environment that hadn't changed when you had changed so significantly?
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I just used to come back at Christmas because I was playing all during the year in different tournaments or in in the the the Serie A.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: I So I wasn't really aware.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was just in just with my mum and dad for a fortnight, you know, Christmas and whatever, so I wasn't really um immersed in it.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll tell you a curious thing about folk were asking me about all my my medals or cops or whatever.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I win something, I always gave it to a fan that was on that, that was following me or whatever.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: I never kept anything, never.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um because I was always looking on, I thought he's never gonna win a medal, sitting in a wheelchair.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: But I have I I don't need some to say, well, well done Rose and just admire myself.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: And anyway, after that, I was always moving on to the next game.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: The next game, the next victory.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um so but I remember there was one particular game and it was um 24th of December, and we were playing in Rome, and I had the player of the year for the Italian League.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a gigantic cop this size, and uh I thought that's nice.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think I was getting driven straight to the airport, I thought, I'll take that home to my mummy.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've never ever brought anything home.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'll take that home to my mummy and see what she thinks about that after nearly killing me because I want to play football.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: So off I go with this cup under my arm, and I get home, Stuart, and I said, Look, I've brought you, Mum.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: She says, Oh, what's that?
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: I says, I've got the player of the year in Italy.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: So she says, put it beside my sewing machine and she put her needle and threads in it.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was the same height, it was the same height as our sewing machine, you know, the whole thing of thing.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can't even get big headed in your own house and a thing.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: Basically, but I thought that that that cut was great because it's no use just admiring it as I said are getting dust.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Mummy had her needle and threads non-butt.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it was the right height for she didn't have to bend down or whatever.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: What about your siblings?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: What was the reaction from?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I've got a twin sister, we're we're two sets of twins, uh my twin sister and Mary, she was a district nurse, uh other three sisters, but my siblings.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I think they're proud of me.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure they have, but I they just don't talk about it.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's just still don't they still don't like talk about how proud they are to be of your achievements, it's just you just know what but but I um Markham McKay made a documentary about me in Alba television.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then we went to the premiere and invited all my my my family.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't know half of what I went through.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: Well they didn't know anything because I didn't say anything.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: Never ever got half.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: So they were learning my life through a documentary.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can I just ask you as well?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned earlier obviously in 2023 you became the ambassador for the Catholic women's team.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do you remember the first time you went to see the women's team play?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: Is that do you remember being kind of emotional or anything?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because I imagine that probably would have been your dream, but that just wasn't an opportunity for you.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it was just it was I told you before, Cheryl, emotions weakness.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know how getting my greeting here in Ghana.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was bursting with pride, that's all I can say.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: But where did you put the shirt that they gave you, see, that day when you became the ambassador with a note like we're 60 years later, where did you put the shirt if you hung it?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, I don't hang it because I've put it on again.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: In the house.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Do you acclunate?
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_00: In the house and much about see where you see where the game is now.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, games are played in stadiums and there's games that on television, and some of our ex-players and current players have in punditrain with TV, and there's the visibility and everything like that.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: But how much more do you think we need to do, or what more do we need to do to get it together?
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do a lot.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: We need to do a lot, Cheryl.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: We need more investment.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's not rocket science.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: We need to invest, we need um we need to have more, how would you say, uh for the young girls.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um unfortunately, in a lot of places to play at football, even from a very young age, you have to be.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's wrong.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: The other thing is it is changing now.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_01: We need football in the primary schools.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: They need to start young.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: For example, Stuart and Annett, young girls.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've got a wee uh football academy start when they're about four years of age.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I love that because that they're V strips, they're alright, but the V shorts never fit on the right baggy because they've got these skinny legs.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the age I think in about ten years' time we're gonna see a good Scotland team and a good league because they've been coached.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um but we need more uh coaches, um you know, obviously at a young age it's the mum and dads that turn up as coaches because we don't have um recognised coaches, but I'm sure the SFA could do something about that.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean every town they must have an extra professional footballer who could get them in to coach the girls.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Are you still involved in quick coaching?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_02: Do you still do every bit?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: No, no.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've um I used to coach when I was in Italy.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um when I when I was playing Roles had young girls' academies and I was a coach there, but coaching is not for me.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I know my weakness, darling, and coaching ain't for me.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: Hats off to all the coaches.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: I like to go and supervise or to put my arm around somebody or to kick somebody uh in the back side to say, get a grip, pal, because we're not able to say that nowadays, but sometimes that's all you need.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um so yeah, um my joy is being an ambassador, and not just for sales women, and of course I'm Stuart and Annette Girls and come on at college with the uh Chris Boyd, he's got to be boys.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: I uh um I feel as if I'm an ambassador for women's football in Scotland and girls in general.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: If they ask me to go anywhere, uh I'll go and speak with the girls or tell them my experiences, yeah.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: That that's my job.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: I passed away, I went to his funeral.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_02: When you were over in Italy and stuff, did you keep in touch with them?
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: Did they No, no?
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have a phone.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, different ones.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's just incredible.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's just uh it's sliding doors moments in your life.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like that is one of them.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: Turning up at a newspaper building and saying, I'm gonna go and ask one of the journalists if you can tell me uh what you know about women's professional football in Europe and your entire little prevaricate show on that moment.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_01: But it's something that you can make happen.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's you that makes it happen.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's never anybody else.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: You thank the person that helped you.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have to take accountability of our own actions and what we want to do in life.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let any say no.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Don't I don't even ask permission now.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_01: In case they say no.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is that one of the things you try and instill in the in the young girls and the players that you say?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hate to watch what I'm saying, Shit.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I do instill it is to believe in themselves.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_01: More self-belief.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of them because of social media, this is my thoughts, and lacking self-belief because you have to be the perfect person, portrayed, whatever.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that that's no reality.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that you have given so much to football.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: What is football given to you?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: My life.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Years ago I wouldn't be in the old Hamden, which this pub was called before.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't have been sitting in the old Hamden, it was just men that was around uh allowed in a pub then, and I wouldn't be interviewed by two beautiful ladies speaking about football.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think we went quite a long way the three of us together.