Pauw doesn’t want off-field issues to take away from ‘magic year for women’s football in Ireland’

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Macdara Ferris reports from FAI HQ

The immediate aftermath of Irish qualification for the Women’s World Cup saw much of the discussion taken up around the controversial singing post-match in the Ireland dressing room. The ‘Up the Ra’ line sung in Scotland would ultimately cost the FAI a €20,000 fine.

The Irish women’s team will be recognised for earning their spot at the World Cup in Australia at the RTÉ Sports Awards on Saturday but 24 hours ahead of that event, Ireland manager Vera Pauw was answering questions about her managerial methods after Houston Dash apologised to players subject to what they called ‘misconduct’ by Pauw when she was manager with the club in 2018.

The plan this week was for Pauw to have a more informal media event on Friday until events from Houston scuppered that plan. Instead the Dutchwomen spoke for close to an hour on Friday when she strongly denied any wrongdoing around her behaviour towards players when she was managing in Houston.

The 59-year-old was asked at Friday’s media event have these events overshadowed Ireland’s historic qualification for the tournament next summer?

“I don’t feel any guilt in this,” said Pauw. “I don’t feel it has anything to do with that fantastic performance that we have done with Ireland. We made the impossible possible, so I don’t want to take that away from the players.

“It’s their performances, their magic year. It’s a magic year for women’s football in Ireland. And this is completely separate. This [allegation] is going back to 2018. It has nothing to do with those fantastic tigers of Ireland, really nothing to do with them. So I hope that everybody realises that.”

The Dutchwomen outlined how her season went with Houston Dash which culminated in them just missing out on the play-offs and she said she had to deal with some disrespect from the players during the campaign.

“The atmosphere from the outset was enthusiastic. We could see where this team was going to, it was going in the right direction and we had a record-breaking season, so there was no sign of it. It’s just that somehow gossips became truth.



“There was swearing, cursing, shouting, everything. I even made a joke of it - every f-word we put a dollar in a jar and give it to charity. We never did it, because I’m not punishing, but I have tried everything to stop all the f-words and all the swearing and cursing. It was several occasions that players apologised.”

“There is no difference (in managerial style between then and now). My approach is not different and my attitude is not different. If you know me now, enthusiasm is the first thing. We just go for it, let’s go for the impossible, structure it and, in that, no compromise.”

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile