A MAJOR tournament for Irish football teams wouldn’t be a proper major tournament without some drama. The Republic of Ireland women’s team, bound for the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand later this month, are currently going through the horrors of their own Saipan-type episode.
Yesterday’s press conference in Tallaght Stadium was supposed to be a cheer-leading exercise, a feel-good send-off for Vera Pauw’s trail-blazing squad ahead of tonight’s final warm-up game against France.
Instead, Pauw spent the vast majority of the 30-minute press briefing defending her reputation against anonymous sources that claimed she’d mistreated players in her care during a coaching spell at Houston Dash in 2018.
Last December, Pauw stood accused in a National Women’s Soccer League report where it was claimed, among other anonymized accounts, she’d body-shamed one of her players.
The FAI backed their national team coach against the allegations at the time and did so again this week after the claims resurfaced in a 7,000-word article published by subscription-based sports website, The Athletic, where many of the same allegations were made, again through anonymous sources.
Pauw felt compelled to contribute to the article – “I did not want to answer but then they said: ‘Oh well, we’re going to write it anyway’ – and claimed in the piece that her own safety was compromised when she alleged a Dash employee threatened to shoot her when she decided to move the time of the team’s training.
Pauw reported the incident to the Houston police and claimed she received police protection for a time.
Flanked by her captain Katie McCabe yesterday, the 60-year-old Dutch native addressed the allegations head on and began reading a supportive text she received to the assembled media, and forlornly hoped the rest of the press briefing would be dedicated to the team’s final warm-up game against the French before looking ahead to their July 20 World Cup opener with Australia.
But that was never going to happen.
“It’s the same story as in December,” said Ireland’s coach.
“It is something from a few anonymous players and how can you defend yourself against a lie? I’ve decided to read out one comment I received from the Netherlands.
“It’s from Barbara Barend. She is the key person who worked on abuse in gymnastics. And she sent me this yesterday. I have translated it and asked her if I could use it.
She read: ‘I don’t put my hands in the fire for anyone. But for you and your pedagogically responsible interactions with players, I do that 100 per cent. I know from so many players how important you are, or have been, inside and outside the pitch.
“You go beyond everything to choose the best for a person. Everyone can learn something from that. You can’t defend yourself against a lie.
“And that’s all that I want to say. We are going to a World Cup, and we have done phenomenally well with this team, and we would never have been able to do that with this team unless we had a bond that was so strong and so positive. And so that’s all I want to say about it.”
But there were some outstanding questions.
Why engage with The Athletic? You fed the story yourself...
“I had to answer, I did not want to answer,” Pauw replied, who was asked by the sports website, as were many coaches, to contribute to a survey about player safety.
“What I said in April, that 226 female coaches in the US have experienced the same thing, and that is what I said when they came to me with some kind of investigation about player safety, which I fully supported, and I immediately cooperated in.
“I said: ‘When are you going to do something in support of the coaches and what are you going to do about the double standards?’ That's what I said. Nothing else.”
The Athletic compiled a dossier of unnamed sources who claimed Pauw was excessive in her control over the Houston players.
Pauw also claimed some testimonies that she’d compiled in support of her weren’t used in the Athletic article.
“I’ve got a whole list of proof of support of players, of Houston Dash, of what happened that was not used, so there was also an agenda.”
Pauw insisted there is an individual in the US who is intent on destroying her career.
“This agenda is known, this agenda has been on Twitter, this agenda is with me,” she said.
An interesting observation was the lukewarm support Katie McCabe offered her under-fire coach at yesterday’s press conference in Tallaght.
There was no players' statement issued supporting Pauw that might have quelled the interrogation – no impassioned speech from the captain either, but it made for a more candid, authentic interaction between manager and media.
One journalist asked McCabe if the players were content with Pauw’s answers to the allegations, the 27-year-old Dubliner replied: “I can't answer for each and every player. Of course, Vera has a style of management that we're used to now over the last two years.
“We’ve argued with each other, of course. You're never going to get on 100 per cent with your manager at times.
“She pushes me and I push her. In my opinion, and from my personal relationship with Vera, of course, we've clashed many a times but we’re always professional enough to make sure we are fully focused for the team.
“We know both of our hearts are in the right place in terms of what works best for the Ireland women’s national team going forward. And again, of course the article’s timing is not great, but our full focus will be France tomorrow and then going into Colombia next week and then obviously kicking off our first ever World Cup.”
Looking visibly drained by the last 24 hours, Pauw said: “Of course, it is draining because it is such a nonsense. I promised not to go into details, I don’t do that.
“But again, players or an assistant coach, or cards or text messages that are handed into The Athletic, they haven’t used that, that says it all, that’s an agenda.
“I’ve got a bunch of players, if you see the video, you will see how close we are together and how much fun we have together and how loud everybody is. And then, you see things like that, and it influences that atmosphere.”
At the end of yesterday's press conference, and with more than a hint of sarcasm, McCabe: “It’s been a pleasure talking about the World Cup, guys. Really appreciate it.”
