Girls football team win tiny plastic cup as boys take home full-size trophy | UK News

When South Morningside Primary School girls football team won the prestigious Edinburgh Schools cup last year, they were presented with a small plastic trophy.

It paled into comparison with the large, grand trophy given to the winning boys team on the same day.

It left the team of 10, 11 and 12-year-olds “shocked and angry” so they wrote to the organisers of the competition to highlight the inequality.

But now the tournament-winning team are celebrating a second victory, after being presented with a big, new trophy the same size as the boys’.

Willie French, president of the Edinburgh Primary Schools Sports Association (EPSSA), admitted he was “quite embarrassed” by the glaring inequality.

After receiving the girls’ letter, he spent £1,600 on a new trophy and handed it over to them in school last week.

“I feel quite proud now because we stood up for ourselves,” said Caitlin Tierney, 11, who was part of the winning team.

She told Scotland News they saw they boys getting their big trophy as they received their small cup having beaten Liberton Primary school 5-2 in the tournament final last summer.

“We went up to complain and asked why did the boys get this big massive trophy and we’ve just got this plastic little thing,” she said.

“It spoiled our day because all the P7s came down to watch us and we get handed this tiny trophy and I was just mad for the whole night.

“I was very upset and we were thinking were we not good enough?”

French, the EPSSA president, said the girls’ tournament had been running since 1997 but it was the first time their final had run on the same night as the boys.

“When I set up the presentation there were the three traditional trophies and then there was this sad wee diddy-looking trophy and I was quite embarrassed,” he admitted.

“It was only brought home because it was the first time we had seen the four trophies all together and I thought this is not good.”

Later, he received the letter from the girls’ team.

“They very articulately and eloquently put forward their argument saying a cup like that didn’t recognise the importance of the girls and it made them feel inferior to the boys, which I completely and utterly agreed,” he said.

Tom Wills, the team’s head coach, said he was worried that the size of the cup would “diminish their sense of achievement”.

“I was so proud of what they had achieved and I thought ‘Is that it?’,” he added.

“I asked them to focus on what they had achieved and how hard they had worked to get there and I think they acknowledged that.”

But he said they were determined to write to the tournament organisers to complain.

“They didn’t need encouragement to do it, it was entirely of their own doing, which I was probably more proud that they did that than even the way they performed in the tournament.”

Vivienne MacLaren, the chairwoman of Scottish Women’s Football, said it was disappointing that the team were not presented with a suitable trophy when they won the tournament, which was held at Meggetland.

“We need to be seen as just as important as and deserving of respect as the boys, so I think it is really admirable what they have done,” she added.

James Dalgleish, City of Edinburgh Council’s education, children and families convener, was at the ceremony where the girls received their replacement cup.

He said: “The South Morningside Primary School girls’ football team have secured their place in history having influenced the commissioning of a new trophy, helping to level the playing field not only in football, but all sports.”