Alex Scott MBE, Gilly Flaherty, Rebecca Welch and Steph Houghton MBE unveiled as 2024 Barclay’s Women’s Super League Hall of Fame inductees 

The Women’s Professional Leagues and lead partner Barclays are delighted to announce that Alex Scott MBE, Gilly Flaherty, Rebecca Welch and Steph Houghton MBE have been inducted into the Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) Hall of Fame for 2024.

The quartet were standout figures during their respective playing and officiating careers, with the Barclays WSL Hall of Fame selection panel – featuring former players, coaches, officials, journalists and key figures from the women’s game – making the decision to add all four to the league’s iconic roster.

Firstly, Alex Scott MBE – now a mainstay across the BBC’s football coverage, the 40-year-old played an instrumental role in the growth of the women’s game in the early noughties.

Spending much of her playing career with Arsenal having joined them as a youngster, Scott won 21 trophies with the Gunners during 12 years at the club including four Women’s League Cups, seven Women’s FA Cups, one WSL league title and one UEFA Women’s Champions League, scoring the winning goal in the final of the latter.

She also played professionally in the United States with the Boston Breakers between 2009 and 2011, and with Birmingham City between 2004 and 2005.

With 140 caps for England to her name alongside her league exploits, Scott has become one of the nation’s most in-demand presenters, achieving a highly successful broadcasting career since hanging up her boots.

She quickly became a fundamental part of the BBC Sport football broadcasting team, including Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score, while also joining Sky Sports for both domestic and international fixtures.

Paving the way for future generations, in a pioneering career of firsts, she made history as the first female pundit on Sky Sports Super Sunday, the first female presenter on Football Focus, and the first female to commentate for the BBC at a men’s FIFA World Cup.

Aside from her work in the world of sport, Scott has also hosted and been part of shows such as Sport Relief, Children in Need, Sports Personality of the Year and SoccerAid, alongside winning Bear Grylls: Mission Survivor in 2016 and reaching the quarter-finals of Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.

A former teammate of Scott’s at Arsenal meanwhile, Steph Houghton MBE is a name synonymous with women’s football, both at domestic and international level.

Starting her route into the game in her native North East with Sunderland as a youngster, her talents were then honed with Leeds Carnegie in the late noughties before she made the switch to Arsenal and began her professional career.

Winning seven trophies in three years – two league titles, two Women’s FA Cups and three Women’s League Cups – Houghton moved to Manchester City in early 2014, and the rest is history.

Captaining the club for the entirety of her decade-long stay, the centre-half lifted seven trophies in sky blue, and added a further 138 matches to her WSL appearance tally, meaning she ended her career on a total of 178 WSL games and 23 goals.

She was additionally awarded an MBE in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to football.

Also sporting the armband for England for eight years, Houghton’s impact on the wider women’s game cannot be underestimated, with her now a regular in punditry positions across the BBC and Sky Sports’ coverage of both the women’s and men’s game.

A player who finished just one game short of Houghton’s appearance haul meanwhile was Gilly Flaherty, with the former defender having once held the league record for the number of games played in the top flight.

The London-born centre-half started out with Millwall Lionesses as a youngster before joining Arsenal in 2003 where she remained for a decade, winning 17 trophies with the Gunners including five Women’s FA Cups and two WSL titles.

Moving across the capital to Chelsea in 2014, Flaherty’s success with silverware continued as she helped the Blues to two Women’s FA Cups and three league titles, including the Spring Series.

Enjoying spells at West Ham United between 2018 and 2022 – where she was a Women’s FA Cup runner-up in 2019 – and Liverpool in 2022/23, the former England international retired from playing two years ago and now regularly undertakes media duties across the women’s game.

Finally, Rebecca Welch becomes the first official to be inducted into the Barclays WSL Hall of Fame following her retirement earlier this year.

A trailblazer in her own right, Welch was a mainstay in the Barclays WSL and its cup competitions from its introduction, but also made waves outside of the women’s game by becoming the first female official to oversee a Premier League, EFL and men’s FA Cup fixture.

She also officiated on some of football’s biggest international stages, including the 2022 UEFA Women’s EUROs, the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the 2024 UEFA Women’s Champions League Final and, most recently, the Paris 2024 Olympics women’s football tournament where she concluded the final game of her career as fourth official for the Gold Medal Match.

Now working with PGMOL as the manager of the Select Group Women’s Professional Game, Welch’s impact on the game is undeniable as she looks to now develop the growing pool of Barclays WSL and Barclays Women’s Championship officials as well as continuing to inspire the next generation.

Flaherty, Houghton, Scott and Welch’s official induction will take place at a special Barclays WSL Hall of Fame celebration event in January 2025.