Elgin City women’s football team manager Michael Morrison speaks about impact made by England’s Lionesses in Euros and Women’s World Cup on encouraging more female players to play.
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00:00 A couple of years ago when England won the Euros at Wembley, there's been a massive
00:05 increase in young girls wanting to play the game.
00:09 It's just gone stratospheric, for want of a better description.
00:15 Over that period, and the World Cup this year is attracting much louder crowds than ever
00:20 before the women's Premier League's, filling Old Trafford and places like this on a weekly
00:26 basis, so the desire for people to come and watch the game now is bigger than it's ever
00:32 been and it's only going to get higher and higher in terms of attendances.
00:39 This isn't a box-ticking exercise by any means by the club, we want to progress.
00:42 We've been very lucky in terms of sponsorship for the team over the last six months trying
00:49 to get people on board.
00:51 We've got huge numbers in terms of people wanting to sponsor shorts and sleeves and
00:57 things like that, so we've been very lucky in that respect.
01:01 As you say, there has been a ladies team in the past that fell away for whatever reasons,
01:08 but I think my girls at the moment, I don't quote my numbers, but they've got hundreds
01:13 of girls playing from the ages of under 10s right up to under 16s.
01:17 They've done a fantastic job over a number of years keeping that interest in football
01:23 for the girls in Moray and they're going from strength to strength as well.
01:27 Hopefully going forward we already have a relationship with them and we can only make
01:32 that relationship better and hopefully it benefits everybody.
01:36 You know it is different, you don't get the same time before and after a game in the dressing
01:43 room to make sure that people are listening and things like that.
01:49 In terms of the quality of the players that we've got on board, there's work to be done.
01:55 A lot of them haven't played for a number of years for instance and we're still trying
02:00 to get them to understand where they need to be when we're in possession.
02:04 When we're in possession it's very good.
02:07 They're very keen, they're listening, they're understanding and they're taking on board
02:11 everything that we're trying to get across which is pleasing.
02:14 It's been really enjoyable to be honest.
02:18 It's been different but it's been really enjoyable.
02:21 It'll be a proud day for you when you see the girls out there in their first Scottish
02:24 League match?
02:25 Aye, it'll be a proud day for everybody, friends, family, myself included.
02:29 Hopefully the board will be here watching and understanding that there is a huge desire
02:36 for this type of thing in Elgin and in Moray and we can hopefully go from strength to strength.
02:42 The club have been really good with us as well since we started the situation.
02:47 You can see them with all their training gear, the same as the first teams, with travel suits,
02:51 get buses to away games.
02:53 We're trying to make the set-up as professional as we can.
02:57 The club have been really good in terms of backing us as well.
03:01 Everything's been really focused and everything's been really positive.