As Scotland get set for the World Cup, Hearts are ploughing ahead with plans to replicate their boys’ academy setup for girls

Any notion that Heart of Midlothian could recruit a key member of staff from Manchester City appeared fanciful until recently. So, too, did the sense that a major Scottish club would replicate its boys’ academy setup for girls. Kevin Murphy delivers an uplifting counterpoint to both cliches.

Hearts would have pressed ahead with the integration of their women’s side into the club’s main football department regardless of Scotland’s qualification for the Women’s World Cup. The wave of goodwill within the country on account of the achievements of Shelley Kerr’s team simply means this move is well timed. Murphy swapped City’s sky blue thinking for blue sky thinking when returning north to oversee a Hearts transition which will be formalised in November.

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“I just believe girls should have the same opportunities as boys,” says Murphy, who left his job as technical director of City Women to become Hearts’ academy and women’s manager. “They have the same dreams. It’s unfair for a girl to grow up thinking: ‘I’m never going to play for the club I love.’

“If there are sponsors or commercial partners we can attract then fantastic, we are open to that, but we want to give girls the same opportunity as boys. If you are at Tynecastle High School next door as a 12-year-old girl, you can have the same journey as a 12-year-old boy.”

Hearts landed a coup by hiring a Uefa pro-licence holder, who knows how buoyant women’s football can be, from a member the game’s aristocracy. “City is an incredible operation,” he says. “The feeling of inclusiveness just hit me in the face. They talked about the women’s game as much as the men’s game. You saw that in the branding, in the resource, even inside the stadium, the club shop. Everything is equal and it isn’t just propaganda; it’s the core of the business.

“I’ve had experiences in the past where it was: ‘This is Kevin, he does the girls’ stuff ...’ I felt really important at City and I can honestly say I’ve had the exact same, if not better, here. I know I’m not fighting a losing battle; I’m pushing at open doors. We feel we can have a massive impact.”

Until now, Scottish sides paid lip service to women’s teams. Genders have shared strip colours but very little else. Ann Budge, Hearts’ owner, put a plan in place years ago with a view to altering that landscape to the tune of six-figure annual investment. Budge’s appreciation of life beyond traditional Scottish football boundaries sets her apart from so many owners. Roger Arnott, the head of the club’s academy, soon became immersed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scotland play their opening World Cup match against England on Sunday. Photograph: Steve Welsh for the SFA/PA

“We will have a [girls’] academy run by the club,” Arnott explains. “Historically things have been run as a grassroots team, within a charitable element or underneath the community arm. This will be part of the football club. The women come in, not on a full-time basis until we grow things, but as part of the football department. They get the same resource and support. It’s absolutely about performance, about helping them get better as footballers.”

In practical terms, girls at Hearts will be introduced to the club’s principles of play, improve technique through the Box Soccer programme and encounter paid staff in what was previously a volunteer-led domain. Hearts work with 250 boys a week from under eight upwards; dual-band age groups for girls mean the figure will not be identical but the scale of this operation is striking. A community element aimed at boosting participation and wellbeing will remain.

The broader picture is fascinating. Glasgow City, a standalone club, have dominated the Scottish club scene for years. The national squad in France is made up largely of England-based players. In Scotland, contracts are amateur, meaning players can move without any compensation.

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Murphy feels calls for professionalism must be placed in context. “There is nothing wrong with having a vibrant league producing fantastic young players to go to England or Europe,” he says. “There is nothing wrong with us helping someone fulfil their dream. If we produce a player for seven years, she is a top player in Scotland and gets a big move down south, that shows our academy is working. We would attract players through having a reputation.

“We need to grow it organically and slowly. It has to be sustainable. The last thing I want to see is clubs chucking resource at it, then it collapses. There has been a lot of evidence of that happening in Europe and America. One day I’d love to have a fully professional Scottish league, 100%; I’m just not one of these people who gets swept away and wants it tomorrow.”

Murphy raises an eyebrow when comparison between male and female players is raised. “You don’t draw these with 100m sprinters or tennis players,” he says. “Because this is the national sport we are ingrained with ‘This is how football is’. When we see a slightly different version of it, our brains can’t compute.”

World Cup participation is a novel concept in itself. The Scottish women’s scene should reap wider benefit.