IWD2018 - Three greats of women's football discuss the sport

On International Women's Day, Alex Scott, Rachel Yankey and Emma Hayes spoke to 'Sky Sports' to analyse the growth and expansion of women's football in recent years. In spite of controversy at the top of the hierarchy and many changes brought about in the wake of this, women's football looks set for a bright future.

Alex Scott, an Arsenal defender and 140 caps for England, says that improvement over the years is evident. ''If you look back 10, 15 years ago, when I first started, the fact we only used to train twice a week, we used to get hand-me-down kit. You never had a centre of excellence or much in your local community, there was just no pathway.'' The channels that exist now, are credited with attracting a greater influx of women to the game. Scott says the next main challenge for women's football is to ''increase the profile of every female footballer out there,'' with the view that greater exposure ''will encourage the new generations to come through.''

Former Arsenal winger, Rachel Yankey, is in agreement that women's football has become both more established and professional, but also believes ''more still needs to be done''. Yankey has made 129 appearances for England during her international career and thinks the next important task for the sport is ''to boost crowds''. Despite television audience expanding, Yankey says that women's football desperately needs more match attendance. Although she raises the point that ''it's a vicious circle because the players need to be professional, be training well and playing well; we need to make the game a greater, higher-quality spectacle so people spend their money and time on it.''

The former England international sees the appointment of Phil Neville as a positive step as she believes it will heighten the profile of the game. However, the 38-year-old says the key is ''more women coaching - at grassroots and elite level. We need to make it the norm that women are coaching girls and boys.'' There needs to be concerted effort to break down the stereotype that football is a predominantly male sport.

Emma Hayes, the Chelsea Ladies manager, believes that the best exposure will come from ''winning a major tournament'' that ''will be crucial in propelling women's football to another level.'' She would like to see England, supported by the Premier League, become the first country to throw their weight behind women's football at every level. "How far are we from appointing women head coaches to men senior sides? I still think we're a little bit away from that at the moment, we still have to produce more coaches at the top end first. We then need boards brave enough to interview, and for that you need fans to take to that. The players are probably the easiest thing to manage in that whole conundrum."

Women's football is making significant steps towards the recognition it deserves, but much still remains to be done in the breaking the stereotypes that often persist in this male-dominated sport.