Laura Montgomery on the rise of Glasgow City: ‘It’s like an East Fife budget versus Real Madrid’

Everyone has a frustrating tale of missing out to recount at present. Laura Montgomery is no different.

Laura Montgomery co-founded Glasgow City in 1998

Hers seems especially agonising. Last night she should have been on the sidelines at German club Wolfsburg’s ground watching the club she helped launch play the second leg of a Champions League quarter-final tie. Instead she was sitting home alone in Clarkston contemplating what other effects the coronavirus will have on Glasgow City as well as her own employment situation at Hibernian.

Montgomery, Head of sales and sponsorship at Easter Road, is in a unique position of jointly running a high-profile football club while working for another one on the other side of the country.

This week ought to have been another celebration in the 22-year history of Glasgow City. No matter how they fared against Wolfsburg, reaching the last eight of the Champions League for the second time in five years is a feat which stands among the finest in all Scottish sport. Montgomery started the Glasgow City project from scratch with her best friend Carol Anne Stewart – or Cas as she’s known.

The change in football economics since then, in both the women and men’s game, means Montgomery is more amazed now at what’s been achieved. Back in 1998, her ambitious outlook meant she thought reaching for the stars was possible.

“Back then I had no idea of the amount of money that would come into the game,” the 44-year-old explains. “If I am being honest, it is utterly ridiculous we are anywhere near the quarter-finals. For example, we played Paris St Germain in 2015 in the quarter finals. Their budget was £7 million, our budget was probably £70,000.

“The differences at this level are astronomical,” she adds. “We will eventually be playing Wolfsburg and the vast majority of their players all earn six figures. Some of our players might get £100 a month towards petrol.

“It is like an East Fife budget versus Real Madrid. So it is more amazing in the context of now. Even the money in the men’s game now was not there all those years ago. We were playing Paris St Germain, who are virtually owned by a small country. The money available to your Man Citys, PSGs and Arsenals is frightening. There are professional men’s clubs able to finance a women’s section for £10m and not bat an eyelid.”

That saying, she does worry about what the current situation means for women’s football. It’s been proven that when a financial downturn begins to bite, newer projects attached to a men’s professional club, such as a women’s team, are the first to go.

“You only have to look back a few years,” says Montgomery. “As soon as some men’s clubs hit some financial trouble what did they do? They drop their entire women’s professional section. Sunderland did it, Notts County did it.

“It will probably unfortunately happen again,” continues Montgomery. “But it will never happen at our club. Our sole focus is the girls and 
women.”

Attention will fall on the likes of Hearts, Hibs, Rangers and Celtic, who all run women’s teams – and in some cases have invested large sums on full-time staff. One of the great attractions of Glasgow City for prospective players is knowing they will never have to play second fiddle. But even a club with lower overheads is not immune to the deeply worrying current circumstances.

For a start, Glasgow City pay as much as £50,000 a year to hire training facilities. “Everything is relative,” says Montgomery. “For us to lose any income is possibly even more significant than it is for others. We budgeted for playing a Champions League quarter-final this month, and now that’s not going to happen. We have had no money from Uefa for that. That’s a concern for us.”

Manager Scott Booth is full-time. Other members of staff receive a wage. “All our players get something,” says Montgomery, who makes a pledge that places the recent actions of many top-flight Scottish Premiership clubs in sharp focus. “I am determined we will retain everyone at 100 per cent of their wages and we will find a way to do so.”

These concerns are all very real but Montgomery is able to put them easily into perspective. In February last year, Kat Lindner, her partner of 16 years, took her own life. She was 39 and had latterly suffered from depression to the extent that Montgomery was preparing to end her association with Glasgow City in order to devote more time to Lindner, who as well as being a distinguished academic specialising in gender, sports and queer theory, was one of Glasgow City’s greatest ever players.

It means this Sunday’s documentary on BBC Alba about the rise and rise of the club will be particularly poignant for Montgomery, who in a particularly cruel twist must watch it alone given current lockdown guidelines. “Me, myself and I!” she says. “I will probably do a wee video call to see everyone’s reactions.”

She’s particularly appreciative of the support network she has at the club and in particular co-founder Stewart, who extricated herself from her own commitments, including a wife and adopted son, to join Montgomery in Tenerife last month.

Stewart suffered a tragedy of her own in 2017 when her younger brother, Martin, died at the age of 48 from MND.

“The wee soul – she upped sticks and left Louise and Lucas to come for a week in Tenerife with me just so I had some company,” says Montgomery. “I had to get away for the anniversary of Kat’s death.”

Having both considered cutting ties with the club that has changed the face of women’s football in Scotland, they now seem as committed as ever. “It is my baby, my life,” says Montgomery. “So many people rely on us. Whether it is the six-year-old, who gets to play with her mates, or the player at the top end who is trying to make the Scotland A squad.”

nThe Women Who Built Glasgow City’is produced by purpleTV for BBC ALBA. It will air on Sunday, April 5 at 9pm and thereafter for 30 days on BBC iPlayer.