They only have a pool of 60 players to choose from, but the team are getting set to roll in the Women’s Nations League. “It’s one of those things that you don’t look back on until it’s gone,” the Gibraltar Women’s manager, Scott Wiseman, tells Moving the Goalposts. “One thing we say to the girls is to just go out there and enjoy every moment because you never know when it is going to be your last. You know when it’s your first … and you’re never going to get this moment again.”.
![[Sophie Downey]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2022/06/06/Sophie_Downey.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
The date of 21 February 2025 will soon be one etched into the young history of Gibraltar’s national women’s team. When the players step out on to the pitch in Moldova to begin their inaugural Women’s Nations League campaign, they will be playing in their nation’s first ever competitive women’s fixture.
![[The Gibraltar players in a team huddle after a friendly against Liechtenstein in February 2024]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/26ffc369cc3b713786cbb1ea911beff416fe9c81/0_220_3300_1980/master/3300.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
For the players, past and present, it will feel like it has been a long time coming despite having played their first match – a friendly against Liechtenstein – as recently as 2021. There have been frustrations and disappointments along the way. They have had to wait more than a decade since the men’s side were accepted into Uefa for the equivalent to happen. In 2023, the Gibraltar FA decided not to enter them into the first Nations League. The governing body stated that the decision had been made “in the interest of the long-term development of women’s football” but was met with disappointment.
Wiseman was appointed shortly after and says the players “took it on the chin” and used it in a positive way. A former Gibraltar international himself, he took on the role as women’s football development manager and head coach in May 2023 having finished his playing career in the country.
