I was chatting to my 7 year old daughter this morning and we were talking about the Scotland Women's Word Cup qualification. She asked me if Caley had a girls team (she loves playing football for her school) and I told her as far as I knew they didn't and the only senior women's team in Inverness was City Ladies. She asked me why, I said I didn't know. 

Why don't we have a girls/womens team? Lack of interest, cost I guess. I believe County do but I guess they can afford it. 

Shouldn't we be promoting girls/womens football?

Edited September 5, 20187 yr by Fraz
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Of course we should. Half the population are female. What an achievement for Scotland to top quite a difficult group and qualify for the World Cup Finals.

Women's football and women's sport in general has been neglected for far too long.

We did have at one point, but they went off on their own (might actually have become Inverness City Ladies team).....not entirely sure why.

Did they not become Inver Ross at some point? 

Think Danny MacDonald was involved in starting up our ladies team when he was at club previously 

Ross county still have a female team however it is in the division below the Inverness City Ladies 

Robbo is spearheading a push to establish an official women's team at the club! Today's P&J 

3 minutes ago, IBM said:

Robbo is spearheading a push to establish an official women's team at the club! Today's P&J 

Good news! 

Don’t like peeing on everybody’s chips, but would it not be better getting the City team back under ICT’s wing if it’s doable? There’s precious little talent in women’s football as it is, and if City and County have teams too it’ll just be like the men’s situation in the Highlands, only worse. The last time I saw them, they were beaten 7-0 by Hearts, and that was in the second tier. They only seemed to have one player who knew what she was doing, I think she was called Emma, no 8. Glasgow City beat them 14-0 in a cup tie a couple of years back. Just my two pennorth, as Laurence would maybe say. Or not.

57 minutes ago, TheMantis said:

Don’t like peeing on everybody’s chips, but would it not be better getting the City team back under ICT’s wing if it’s doable? There’s precious little talent in women’s football as it is, and if City and County have teams too it’ll just be like the men’s situation in the Highlands, only worse. The last time I saw them, they were beaten 7-0 by Hearts, and that was in the second tier. They only seemed to have one player who knew what she was doing, I think she was called Emma, no 8. Glasgow City beat them 14-0 in a cup tie a couple of years back. Just my two pennorth, as Laurence would maybe say. Or not.

One women's team under the wing of the club would be ideal. In my view, it doesn't matter too much whether they are called City or CT as long as there is a serious commitment.

If there is a lack of female talent in the area then that needs to be addressed from primary school onwards. I my experience, girls love playing football just as much as boys but are not always given the same encouragement or opportunity.

8 minutes ago, Kingsmills said:

One women's team under the wing of the club would be ideal. In my view, it doesn't matter too much whether they are called City or CT as long as there is a serious commitment.

If there is a lack of female talent in the area then that needs to be addressed from primary school onwards. I my experience, girls love playing football just as much as boys but are not always given the same encouragement or opportunity.

Totally agree on all points. Im dont know much about City but Id doubt access to club coaches, facilities etc would not be seriously considered? 

There are better opportunities at school nowadays but still a lot of work to be done. Im sure Fraz will comment in due course but I do know his eldest daughter is frequently the only female player at the school holiday courses run by our community dept. Maybe a wee marketing opportunity for the club here given our world cup qualification? 

Just out of interest, how do clubs who runs men’s and women’s teams avoid having to pay the women the same as the men?! It wouldn’t surprise me if one day they get hit with backdated gender equality claims.

I've no clue as to the pool of female football talent at senior levels in Inverness (no pun). 

As someone with a 7 and 4 year old who are both quite interested in football, particularly the 7 year old the grass roots stuff is difficult. She loves playing, but with all kids they want to do things with their friends, if their pals dont want to play they it's hard to encourage them. 

I help coach my daughter's school girls team (all parent volunteers) on a Saturday morning, mostly the P2-4 stage and they usually start off keen but only the die hards continue. I've asked several times about doing a basic coaching qualification and after a year I've had none and nothing has been offered from the SFA. The nearest women's officer is Aberdeen but they do put on several mini tournaments a year, one being tomorrow as part of the McDonalds / ICT fun day. Not all primary schools will have a girls team though. 

Thistle girls train every Saturday too 9-10am at Millburn Academy and they get good numbers. Girls from all over are welcome there. 

One of the other issues I think with girls football at an early stage is they simply don't play football between training, I know mine do a but and a couple of the others but look at the boys and they're playing before the school bell, at break, at lunch and after school basically any free time they have. Quite rare to see a girl join in from my experience. The result of this is that the boys will have far more experience just playing the game which the equivalent girls will lack. 

How to change that I dunno, my daughter is quite confident but many other's aren't. If they try and play with the boys they don't pass and are more naturally aggressive than the girls which can be of putting when playing mixed games. 

Left Hampden last night during injury time and the women’s team were coming out with a bunch of flowers each. Invited them to replace the men on Monday night. Either them or the flowers, not too bothered.

6 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Just out of interest, how do clubs who runs men’s and women’s teams avoid having to pay the women the same as the men?! It wouldn’t surprise me if one day they get hit with backdated gender equality claims.

I would answer that, but I fear it might encourage Charles Bannerman out of his CTO retirement!

8 hours ago, Yngwie said:

Just out of interest, how do clubs who runs men’s and women’s teams avoid having to pay the women the same as the men?! It wouldn’t surprise me if one day they get hit with backdated gender equality claims.

Can only talk from my experience in the LL. Whitehill now register players on Non-Contract for the first team, and Amateur for the U20s. If you register players as Professional, the 3rd option, you now have to pay them the minimum wage. Taking into account travelling twice a week to training plus matchday, this would approximate to £3.5k per player p.a. Not really an option for a small club.

SO - would assume most women's teams would only pay expenses at best, or even pay-to-play.

If Bannerman was here, no doubt he would waffle on about pampered footballers compared to other sports, but the reality is, the vast majority of footballers are not paid, never mind being good enough to make a living at it.

Maybe your question was in jest anyway, as players' salaries are negotiated - you don't get players sueing their club over 'ability equality'.

Edited September 8, 20187 yr by TheMantis

Mantis --you continue to surprise me as to the diversity of the interests you appear to have.

However I'm not quite sure you could fill the Jersey as well as she does. Very nice material though.

Perhaps IHE could look really good in that too.

On 9/5/2018 at 8:51 PM, Fraz said:

Why don't we have a girls/womens team? Lack of interest, cost I guess. I believe County do but I guess they can afford it. 

I can assure you the County Ladies get no beneficiaries from Ross County, it's actually quite sad. I know this because my wife plays for them. They are a relatively new club only been in the women's league for 3 years but are trying to put plans together to try and bring through young talent. Again all being done through players volunteering, which in itself is proving difficult as they all have jobs, fit in their own training/matches as well as find time for the younger ones

in days gone by the club did have a ladies team but did not finance it and it was run totally from the outside. personally I think we shoukd get this club in order financially and administratively before thinking about an add on such as this.

On 9/8/2018 at 6:36 AM, Yngwie said:

Just out of interest, how do clubs who runs men’s and women’s teams avoid having to pay the women the same as the men?! It wouldn’t surprise me if one day they get hit with backdated gender equality claims.

In the same way that they don’t pay all the players in the men’s team the same. Just as in any business you tend to pay staff more if your contribution to the profitability of the business is more crucial. If women players perform at a level which brings in the the same level of income to the club as the men’s team then equality of pay would be appropriate.