VERA PAUW HAS issued another firm rebuttal of allegations of misconduct made against her as she prepares to lead Ireland to the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
This week, The Athletic published an investigative report into Pauw’s time at Houston Dash, which followed on from an NWSL/NWSLPA report released in December 2022.
The NWSL/NWSLPA report alleged Pauw made comments regarding players’ weight and attempted to influence their eating habits during her time as manager of Dash in 2018.
Pauw denies all wrongdoing, refuting “every allegation made against me from my time at Houston Dash” and has been publicly backed by the FAI to date.
While her future employment in the US is “conditional,” Pauw has repeatedly vowed to clear her name and has been in contact with Iowa-based lawyer Thomas Newkirk.
Four former Dash players and three staff spoke anonymously to The Athletic about Pauw’s one season at the club.
The 60-year-old refutes fresh accusations that she was “physically aggressive” and other “abusive” methods.
“It’s the same story as in December,” Pauw told a pre-match press conference today at Tallaght Stadium, as her Ireland side prepares to face France tomorrow at the venue.
“It is something of a few anonymous players and how can you defend yourself against a lie?
“I’m afraid it will follow me during my life and that has been the agenda.
“This distraction, the timing of this is wrong. And the allegations are false.
“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 unless we had a bond that was so strong and so positive.
“I have spoken to the leading players, they came individually to me and said they hold my back. I have asked specifically if they have ever experienced anything. And they said no, never.”
Captain Katie McCabe sat alongside her manager in the press conference.
“It’s a real negative distraction, but for us, we’re solely focusing on what we have going forward, a game against one of the top five teams in the world in France,” said McCabe.
“It’s a lot of external noise but our full focus is on the next few weeks and keeping together as a group. The timing of the release of the article, it is what it is. It’s obviously frustrating because this is such a massive time in Ireland for women’s football.”
Asked if the group fully supports Pauw, McCabe said:
“Yeah, we’ve built something over the last two or three years. We’ve worked really hard together to contain the culture we have within the group in terms of on and off the pitch. We’ve had highs and lows on and off the pitch and our jobs as staff and players is to put in high quality performances for our country and that’s what we’ll be looking to do for the next four weeks.”
While stressing there is “constant dialogue between the women’s team and the FAI,” the Arsenal star continued:
“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. It’s something we’ve worked together, we’ve argued with each other of course. You’re never going to get on 100% 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 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, the article 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.”
Asked whether it would be helpful if her Irish players could make a public statement of support to her, Pauw responded:
“They have done that to me. I did not ask for it, they came to me. I think the first thing I did…”
“Sorry to interrupt, but any internal conversations will happen internally,” McCabe interjected. “We are focusing on a massive game tomorrow and a massive tournament and five weeks ahead for us. That’s our job and that will be our focus going forward. Those conversations will happen internally.”
“I have asked, did you experience once, ever, one moment, and please ask also others, one moment when you felt uncomfortable with the way that I am coaching,” Pauw added.
“They said, no, you are direct, but it is clear and honest. No, never. That’s the senior players, including Katie. If that is said to me, then yeah. I don’t want to go into those details because it is such incredible nonsense.”
Speaking of The Athletic report specifically, Pauw explained that she did not approach the publication but made a comment after returning a survey. This ultimately re-opened the story.
“I was flabbergasted that this was coming back to me. The only sentence that I said was, ‘When are you going to deal with the double standards of female coaches?’
“Go through the allegations and just put [Pep] Guardiola or Louis van Gaal or [Jose] Mourihno in that, you’d actually laugh about it because it’s all about coaching. It’s not about anything else. I don’t want to go into the details because it is nonsense. It’s not true. As I said before, there is great safety in the truth. That truth is with me and the people around me.
“I will never win from a lie, that is clear now, whatever you do, you don’t win from a lie. I have to live with it and carry it with me for the rest of my life, I’m afraid. ”
Written by Emma Duffy and posted on the42.ie
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