THE events of the last week were, to put it mildly, unfortunate. What should have been a football-focused build-up to Tuesday night's key Group B game against Spain instead deteriorated into a squabble between the players and the Scottish FA.

It was ostensibly about the Hampden ticketing arrangements, with players from the current and recent squads sending out identical posts on Tuesday evening. That was followed on Wednesday by a strongly worded rebuttal from the governing body – and then a meeting between SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell, chief football officer Andy Gould and a group of senior players.

My view, for what it's worth, is that the players' action was ill-judged. There appears to be an issue with the SFA's ticketing system, and in particular a difficulty for even small groups of people to purchase seats next each other, but if that is the case the failing seems to apply to men's matches at the national stadium also.

This, and the timing of the messages during the women's under-19 Euro group win over Kazakhstan, gave the SFA an open goal for their following day's statement. Senior SFA staff who are striving to improve the national team's conditions and status also felt badly let down.

All that said, the SFA chose not to go down the diplomatic route with their statement. Given what must have been an increasingly noxious atmosphere at the team's base in Edinburgh, the subsequent meeting with Maxwell and Gould was required to diffuse tensions.

Captain Rachel Corsie, who played a big part in brokering a recent ground breaking collective bargaining agreement for NWSL players in the United States, said the meeting had been positive when she spoke at length to the media on Thursday.

Despite having to start off on the back foot, the 130-times capped central defender robustly fought her players' corner. Asked whether they had chosen the wrong issue on which to fight an ages-old battle, Corsie replied: “I can understand that being the view from the outside.

“The important thing for us is we had a good conversation and there is now the possibility for change to come immediately. It's not about the tickets in isolation – it's more about understanding we are the senior international team and we're in an environment where we want to be as professional as possible.”

Spain, who drew 1-1 with Brazil in Alicante on Thursday, will qualify for next year's World Cup as if they win at Hampden. Scotland look destined for the play-offs, but spare a thought for the players of group rivals Ukraine who may not be able to complete their matches and are having to endure almost unimaginable daily atrocities.

THERE will be a reminder on Tuesday of the struggles women's footballers have faced down the years when June Hunter will finally be presented with the cap she should have received in 1972. Hunter was a full back in the Scotland team which lost 3-2 to England in the first official international between the teams.

That game was played in an era when women's games were banned at SFA grounds and Hunter was one of several players, including Rose Reilly, who moved to Italy to play professionally. The defender was signed by Gorgonzola after impressing in Scotland's game against Italy at the San Siro in 1974, and won the Italian Cup with them before later moving to Giolli Gelati Roma and Piacenza.

Hunter married an Italian policeman and settled in Milan, so wasn't present at Hampden in 2019 when other members of the 1972 side were presented with their long overdue caps on the pitch. The occasion was the World Cup send-off game against Jamaica, when 17,555 fans were in Hampden for what, unfortunately, remains the high point of public and media support for the team.

Football historian and author Andy Mitchell alerted me to Hunter's presentation, as well as her career and family circumstances. His wider researches have uncovered the remarkable fact that at least 17 Scottish women footballers have played professionally in Italy.

Most were from Hunter's era, when opportunities beckoned in that country, but include Lana Clelland and Christy Grimshaw from the current Scotland squad.

THE other full back in the 1972 team, the almost identically named Jean Hunter, is Julie Fleeting's mother-in-law. She features in tonight's BBC Alba documentary on the fabled Scotland striker who scored an incredible 116 goals in her 121 international games.

What comes across is how unassuming Fleeting is, and how very much she was admired by her team-mates. My colleague Susan Egelstaff previews the documentary elsewhere in the paper.