Honesty must be the best policy if women’s game is to fulfil potential

EVEN by the erratic standards of a women’s international game in danger of becoming a dangerously uncompetitive farce, the scale of the defeat should prompt serious soul-searching.

Yet this is ‘not a moment to be ashamed’, according to the head coach on the receiving end of an utterly humiliating thrashing.

It’s the kind of scoreline that, in the days of the old vidiprinter, would have been spelled out 8-0 (EIGHT) for the benefit of the disbelieving.

But Pedro Martinez Losa, a man clearly not given to Sir Alex Ferguson-style critiques, is telling his Scotland players to go away an enjoy Christmas with their families. Well, they’ve earned it.

That may be your honest opinion, Mr Martinez Losa. Or perhaps you’re just protecting your squad, keeping private thoughts in-house and presenting a united front to the public. Hopefully the latter is the case.

Because the most important players at your disposal, elite athletes employed to win games for some of the biggest clubs in the game, certainly won’t be buying the ‘ah well, you put in a great effort’ nonsense guaranteed to accompany too many embarrassing defeats down the years.

The women’s game, in general, is often protected by a gallery of cheerleaders disguised as analysts. Ex-players determined to promote the ‘brand’ at all costs — accompanied by pundits terrified of causing offence.

The good news is the landscape is changing, if the blunt and biting analysis of Joelle Murray — Hibs captain and current Scotland internationalist — on BBC Alba’s coverage of events in Seville is any indicator.

Questioning whether the manager is close to having a consistent squad and settled way of playing, Murray acknowledged Spain’s strengths but declared: ‘We need to be better, on and off the ball. In and out of possession. Decision making, everything. Just be better.’

We could certainly do with much more of that honesty. Here in Scotland, for starters. And as part of a wider conversation about the structural inadequacies of the business.

It wasn’t a good week for anyone involved in women’s international football, to be honest, with England’s 20-0 dismantling of Latvia raising all sorts of questions about the viability of a qualifying system that pits hapless amateurs against hardened professionals.

We’ve seen teams battered 10 and 11-0, several other nations ship seven or eight goals, while scores of 6-0 occur with such frequency as to barely merit mention. It’s a joke. A shambles.

And it’s in dire need of an overhaul. Now, a lot of those involved in the women’s game really bristle with indignation when even a passing comparison is made between their product and men’s football.

In many instances, that’s entirely understandable.

When it comes to international qualification processes, however, it seems daft for the women not to use one established frame of reference when figuring out what works for them. No offence is intended when it’s suggested that, purely in terms of global strength in depth, the women’s game is where the men were, what, a good half century ago? Maybe even longer ago than that?

It’s nobody’s fault that only a minority of even sizeable European nations have fully professional women’s leagues.

But a regionalised/tiered qualification system, one asking the lowest-ranked nations to play themselves into the proper UEFA group stages, is worth considering. Not as a permanent solution but as a stop-gap, giving the sport a chance to grow.

Because it’s going to take time for the international game to reach a critical mass of playing numbers, quality coaching and investment in the right projects.

They’ll get there. The current rate of progress suggests progress will be a lot quicker than it was in the men’s game, with really promising signs — the spectacular popularity surge in Sweden stands out — pointing to exponential improvement, if only we can be a little patient.

But a change to qualification for World Cups and European Championships might actually help everyone, the smaller nations included, to find their feet. At least for a while.

The alternative is more one-sided hammerings in every international break.

And that’s a hard sell to supporters in search of genuine competition and entertainment.

The fact that Scotland have just been on the wrong side of such a shellacking, meanwhile, cannot be accepted as just one of those things.

Martinez Losa can call upon genuine world-class talents capable of doing remarkable things on a football field.

As good as Spain may be, 8-0 is a scoreline that belongs in cup mismatches or youth competitions.

If we didn’t care, if the women’s team barely caused a blip on our radar, we’d perhaps agree with the gaffer’s upbeat take on an absolute rout.

But it does matter. And it’s not good enough. To suggest otherwise is patronising nonsense.