A trailblazer of women’s football who received an award for her championing of the sport has backed calls for Celtic and Rangers to join the Women’s Super League.
Patricia Gregory, who has been supporting women’s football since its subdued beginnings in the 1960s, commented on the news that the Old Firm clubs and the WSL have contemplated a move of the Scottish teams over to the English top flight in preliminary talks.
Ms Gregory was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday for “services to national and international Association Football and to Charity”.
Speaking after the ceremony, Ms Gregory said about Celtic and Rangers possibly joining the English game: “I would think it’s good.
“I’m still in touch with my opposite number from the 1970s in Scotland, and I know that they had even more difficulties.
“When we played the first International on the 18th of November 1972 up in Scotland, the Scottish FA had still not recognised the women, and they didn’t for another couple of years.
“So I would think anything that helps it around has got to be good,” she added.
The Scottish Women’s FA was founded in August 1972, but it was not recognised until 1975.
Ms Gregory was a key-member and co-founder of the Women’s Football Association, which organised and supported women’s football in England.
The WFA also fought for recognition by the FA, which in 1921 had banned women from playing football on its grounds.
Ms Gregory, aged 78 years, said: “I formed a team in 1967 – and that’s when I wanted to get facilities, like a a pitch and training facilities, from the local council.
“They refused, because in 1921, the Football Association banned women from playing on grounds under their control.
“Fifty years later, people like me come along looking for facilities, but there was no organisation in women’s football.”
Ms Gregory said she then decided to put out an advert in a football magazine looking for matches.
She said: “The response from mainly men’s and boys’ teams was: ‘Come and play on our pitch’.”
This caught the attention of a football administrator called Arthur Henry Hobbs, who in 1967 went on to run England’s first tournament for women’s football teams.
Ms Gregory said: “We went down to Deal in Kent to have a look at this competition, and that’s how we got in touch with other women’s teams.
“And out of that tournament, women became organised, we organised leagues, and eventually founded the Women’s Football Association.”
The WFA was established in 1969, the same year the Football Association finally lifted its ban on women playing after 50 years of prohibition.
The WFA was finally handed over to the Football Association in 1993, when its original organisers “ran out of money”, Ms Gregory said.
She added: “When we handed it over in 1993, we knew that it needed to go to the FA so that they could find sponsors – which they have done.
“Millions and millions and millions has gone into it.
“So it’s unrecognisable from the 1960s.”
Speaking about being made an MBE, Ms Gregory said: “I suppose it’s recognition for 60 years – some sort of recognition for getting it (the WFA) onto a firm footing, to enable the Football Association to take it on, and invest huge sums of money in the way that we couldn’t – we hadn’t got the resources.”
Since the Lionesses’ s win in the Uefa Euro 2022 Women’s Championship, Ms Gregory has been working with the FA to award legacy caps to the original 1972 Lionesses, and all the female players that followed them.
She said: “There’s about 240 England players now, and the Football Association seems to spend a lot of time celebrating them, so that was good.”
Speaking about the upcoming Women’s Euro 2025, which is due to take place in Switzerland in July, she said: “I hope that they (England) succeed again in the Euros this year.
“Winning in 2022 obviously gave the sport a huge lift, and I don’t know that they will replicate that this year, but one hopes.”
