The Football Association of Ireland is ready to decide the fate of its senior woman’s manager Vera Pauw at a board meeting on Tuesday.
If the 11-strong board have listened to senior Irish players, the Dutch woman is unlikely to receive a contract extension up to the 2025 European Championships in Switzerland. If not, chief executive Jonathan Hill will need to produce a detailed explanation as to why Pauw is being retained when she has seemingly lost the support of her squad.
Marc Canham, the association’s director of football, has submitted a report to the executive on the entire World Cup qualification campaign, dating back to the 1-0 defeat to Sweden at Tallaght Stadium in October 2021.
This should provide enough information to either part ways with Pauw or offer the 60-year-old a new deal.
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Either way, the FAI is running out of time to prepare for the first ever female international at the Aviva Stadium, against Northern Ireland on September 23rd. Ireland also face Hungary in Budapest on September 26th in another Nations League fixture that impacts on Euro 2025 qualification.
The leadership in the FAI has changed since Pauw sat beside Noel Mooney, now Wales football CEO, for her unveiling in September 2019. Mooney, then acting FAI general manager, said the association had “worked extremely hard to find the right coach to give our squad the best opportunity possible to qualify”.
Pauw duly became only the third Ireland manager after Jack Charlton and Mick McCarthy to reach a World Cup. In that sense, her legacy within Irish sport is secure.
Neither Canham nor Hill have spoken publicly about Pauw or on any issue for several months. In the meantime, there have been a number of incidents that suggested a disconnect in the Irish camp, culminating in the row between Pauw and team captain Katie McCabe after the final World Cup game against Nigeria on July 31st.
Entering the last quarter against the Super Falcons, McCabe asked her manager to “freshen up” the side. “There is absolutely nothing unusual about a captain urging a manager to make changes during a game,” wrote Karen Duggan in the aftermath. “It’s not some kind of act of defiance or disrespect, it’s commonplace, a standard enough interaction.”
Pauw refused to assuage her skipper’s frustrations and post-match the veteran Dutch coach was openly critical of the Arsenal winger.
“If Katie McCabe says that she wants a change that doesn’t mean [we change]. She’s not the coach.”
Pauw also claimed, unprompted, that the captain had wanted Sinead Farrelly removed from the pitch. In response, McCabe tweeted the emoji of a mouth zipped shut.
How the new-look FAI board interprets this embarrassing exchange on a global stage, and other off-field decisions by Pauw leading up to the tournament, could make it extremely difficult to offer her a new deal.
The players, as a collective, have made it clear they do not want Pauw to remain in the job. They refused to support her during the World Cup while it is understood the team’s conservative tactics became unpopular within the playing group.
For example, McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan were employed in defensive roles despite the pair combining for 13 goals during qualification. O’Sullivan described the tournament as one of “emotion” and “distraction”.
There are other issues the FAI board must carefully consider.
The Houston Dash controversy surrounding Pauw had dampened down until last April when she prompted an article by the Athletic – the sports arm of the New York Times – by challenging a journalist to reopen an investigation into her 2018 season coaching in America. Anonymous accusations of bullying and belittling behaviour, which Pauw denies, brought renewed focus on the FAI’s support of their manager despite her ongoing ban from coaching in the US.
Before the France game in Tallaght, McCabe referred to the controversy as a “real negative distraction” and when asked about a contract extension for Pauw, she replied: “It’s not my decision to make. Obviously time will tell.”
The announcement of the 23-woman World Cup squad on June 28th also became a lesson for the FAI in how not to do business.
Pauw’s decision to exclude Leanne Kiernan and Megan Campbell on fitness grounds, and not injury, upset a number of players. The manager branded it the “worst day of my career” and cut off media interviews in the UCD Bowl to compose herself.
And when a behind closed doors game against Colombia on July 14th was abandoned by Pauw after 23 minutes, following a foul on O’Sullivan, the “distractions” began to damage preparations.
This did not stop Ireland producing three competitive performances in Group B but the messiest of build-ups arguably denied them the chance to join other growing football nations, like Colombia, Jamaica and Morocco in the knockout stages.
