The leading renewable energy company became the exclusive Principal Partner for Scottish Women’s Football and the Scottish Women’s Premier League at the start of last season and is dedicated to supporting the women’s game from grassroots to elite.

To celebrate its partnership, the firm is providing 6 x kit packages to grassroots clubs featuring bibs, cones, water bottles and Puma football boots and footballs (sized for U14s).

It asked the captains of each of the top 6 SWPL sides to nominate a community club they value for their work to further developing girls’ youth football.

Local hero Kirsty Howat, who’s been capped by Scotland at junior and senior levels, nominated Heston Rover Girls, who’s coach Chris Hay received the new equipment at the team’s training ground in Dumfries.

From Dumfries herself, Kirsty said: “It’s great to be here to hand out this new kit to the girls. When I was a young girl, we always just got hand me down kit, usually kits that the boys were done with, and they’d always be too big. We’d get old footballs too.

“To be handing out new kits, footballs and everything here tonight is absolutely brilliant. By giving teams like Heston Girls access to kit like this, especially their own new kit, it helps build strong foundations for them to go and be successful, to make training enjoyable for them and to ultimately keep them in the game and grow the game in Scotland.”

Heston Girls coach Chris Hay said: “A kit donation like this means everything to Heston, it’s great to have the support from ScottishPower and also our local hero Kirsty Howat. The girls just love to see someone they can aspire to be. Grassroots is where it all starts, clubs like Heston need as much support as possible to grow the game and produce more stars like Kirsty.

“The girls and women’s game in Dumfries is growing fast. We’ve grown from 20/30 girls to into the hundreds now of girls in this area who are able to access and play football, all the way from under 8s to under 16s, and all here at Heston. That in turns means we always need to provide more and more kit, so to have this provided by ScottishPower for us is just superb.”

The kit giveaway comes as ScottishPower works closely with both SWF and the SWPL to invest in supporting the continued growth of the women’s game.

Keith Anderson, Chief Executive of ScottishPower, said: “We want to energise women’s football for both current and future generations and build a community of players that inspire even more people to play and enjoy the game.

“That means working with our partners at SWF and the SWPL to help clubs and players overcome barriers to their growth and operation.

“By providing training kit and asking those players at the top of the game to nominate a community club to receive it, we’re making sure that everyone can benefit from this partnership, whether at the elite end of the game or those all-essential grassroots.”

ScottishPower is at the heart of communities across the country, whether it’s through the thousands of green jobs being created, the renewable power it generates or the secure, stable electricity it supplies – keeping the lights on from power to plug.

It is also a major employer in Scotland with a key focus on encouraging more women to consider STEM careers.

ScottishPower’s partnership joins parent company, Iberdrola, which has been promoting equality through sport since 2016, through competitions and federations in Spain and Brazil.

It supports more than 100 competitions, 32 of them as Iberdrola leagues, reaching an estimated 600,000 female athletes.