Aberdeen Women co-manager Emma Hunter says the club are excited to be part of a new era in Scottish women’s football.
The SWPL season, which kicks off this weekend, will be run by the SPFL – the same governing body as the men’s leagues – for the first time.
In moving to the SPFL, SWPL 1 and 2 have been restructured with 12 teams now competing in the top-flight and eight in the second-tier.
On Thursday, the SPFL launched the rebrand of the women’s top leagues, with representatives from all teams present – including Aberdeen’s Loren Campbell – at Hampden Park.
The launch followed the SFA’s announcement on Wednesday, that they will run a national cup competition which will see the semi-finals and finals played at Hampden.
Earlier this year the Dons voted to move to the SPFL, and co-manager Hunter is looking forward to seeing how it helps progress the women’s game.
She said: “It’s really exciting and it does feel like it’s all starting to come together. It’ll take some time, but we will see more professionalism in the game because of it.
“It’s great for us to be part of that. I find myself feeling really lucky – although I’m not young enough to play, I’m able to coach in these kind of historical moments.
“It seems to be every week that records are being broken in women’s football, and history is now being made in Scotland.
“What I’d like to see now we’ve taken these big steps forward, is the change and the progress that comes because of that.”
The incentive of playing at Scotland’s national stadium
Hunter believes that playing cup semi-finals and finals at Hampden Park is a step in the direction towards encouraging fans to attend and boosting the game financially.
She added: “There’s previously been a reluctance for women’s football to be played in these big stadiums. But women’s football has now proved at the Euros, it can fill them.
“You’ve got to go and try it here in Scotland and try promote the game. It’s a big step and it’s important that we build on all the momentum to get people into the ground.
“If we get people into the ground in big numbers we can start to get a return on the investment that has been put into women’s football.
“By playing in these big stadiums we will hopefully attract a bigger fan base, but we have to keep marketing the game and do that better as well.
“It’s not just going to happen over-night, and it’s something in Scotland that we need to be better at.”