Women in football should be supported

I can’t believe some of the sexist attitudes regarding women in football.

We could have the two Edinburgh clubs playing in the Championship next season.

And should that be the case, the respective escape strategies of Hearts and Hibs will be dictated to a large extent by Ann Budge and Leeann Dempster.

Budge is the new owner of the Tynecastle club, Dempster the new Chief Executive at Easter Road.

The situation with Budge is clouded a little in that the takeover of Hearts is still a work in progress.

From what we know, though, it is clear she will take responsibility for the finances of the club going forward. As a highly-successful businesswoman, that makes perfect sense.

Dempster is a slightly different case. Hibs haven’t asked her to put any of her money into the club, simply to take a hand in managing theirs.

It is a position they head-hunted her for on the basis of her excellent work with Motherwell.

She had a great reputation at Fir Park for involving the local community with the football club. Hibs patently believe it is an area in which they have room for improvement.

Given it is not that long ago they’d 30,000 fans going through to Hampden for Cup Finals, you can see the logic.

The point I am making is that we are talking about two very important positions at two of our biggest clubs.

And they are filled by two individuals possessing immaculate credentials to be right where they are now.

In my career as player, manager, agent and broadcaster, I have plenty of experience of listening to fans.

I think I can safely say their main concern is the well-being of their clubs and the fortunes of the team on the pitch.

Not whether the people who are ensuring that successes are male or female.

Certainly I think the majority of Rangers supporters would be happy if the strategy rolled out for Hearts was being applied at Ibrox.

Fan involvement, a clear plan for the future and the basic premise that the club will not pay its employees more than it can afford.

A pledge to develop their own talent, players and coaches for their own use with the best being sold on for profit.

What’s not to like about that? To be fair, we don’t know if it will work at Tynecastle.

What we do know is that they are a club with a clear idea of where they want to go, and how they want to get there.

That has to be a good starting point and, as much as I have sympathy for Gary Locke, it is like the inclusion of women in our game to be supported.