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Sheila Begbie, Assistant Technical Director for Girls' and Women's Football at the Scottish FA, made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the New Year Honours List for the United Kingdom

By Andy Mitchell

This honour is for services to women's football and she is the first such Scottish recipient of the honour. Sheila Gegbie showed considerable talent at an early age and won the first of 25 caps for Scotland aged just 15. She was a regular in the Scotland team throughout the 1970s and was twice offered a professional contract in Italy, but each time turned it down as she was undertaking teacher training at the time. A ruptured achilles tendon in the early 1980s ended her career prematurely, so she switched to coaching her club team, Edinburgh Dynamos.

In 1991 she left the teaching profession to take up a post with the Scottish Sports Council as Girls' and Women's Football Co-ordinator, with a national remit to develop structures for women's football. She put in place many of the structures which still provide the basis for women's football in Scotland, and in 1996 was voted Coach of the Year in recognition of her work. She joined the Scottish Football Association in 1999, with a similar remit for national structures, and also coaches the national Under 16 team as well as assisting with the Under-18 team.