No New Contract For Vera Pauw

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2023/0829/1402208-pauws-ireland-reign-ends-as-fai-opt-for-new-direction/

In a brief statement issued by Irish football's governing body, chief executive Jonathan Hill said: "On behalf of the Football Association of Ireland, we would like to thank Vera for her hard work and commitment over the past four years and wish her well for the future.

"In particular, I wish to acknowledge the role she played in leading Ireland to the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 where our women’s team made history and inspired a nation.

"The future is bright for women and girls’ football and our focus now is building upon the work done by Vera and the historic achievements of our women’s team, which we see as a platform to support the next phase of the journey for the team, and more broadly the development of women and girls’ football in this country."

An extremely successful manager...

In a time when Irish sport is flourishing, what's going on?

Rubberchikken

Is it a case of no smoke without fire in the alleged 'weight shaming' mentioned in times past or the seemingly unhappy relationship between her and the team captain?

Or maybe it's just time for new blood.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045137#Comment_121045137

Irish soccer is an outlier;

Best rugby union team in the world

Brilliant results in athletics

What's going on?

Xander10

Current affairs?

I think we are losing the plot here......

I don't rate the ladies soccer but I was shouting for them all the same!

Too much hype surrounding it, a little like the GAA!

Glad though to see the end of this lady.

Vinnie222

Madness.. Player power wins again. This Irish team is way over hyped

seamieyaboya

Who remembers Saipan 2006?

Roy Keane thought he was more a manager than Mick McCarthy.

Has the Irish team ever recovered since then?

May the same happen to this gang!

Time for a root-to-branch cleanout of the F.A.I.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045200#Comment_121045200

Imagine the hype had the men's team gotten to the World Cup finals! The women's team did well and while they didn't get out of their group, they still made it to the finals!

Pablo Escobar

Ignoring the controversy, which in pro sport is hardly a surprising thing and barely a controversy imo, ignoring her great achievement in getting to the World Cup, and ignoring a clear rift with players, she made some bizarre and, in hindsight, awful calls in squad and team selection for the World Cup. Tactically she also got it wrong and in-game management was very very poor.

TruthEnforcer

The so called "Controversy" was was years ago ...and addressed by Vera which was accepted by the FAI before going to the WC.

As soon as Katie McCabe does her Roy Keane moment, the FAI start getting nervous.

Who's the Manager ? Vera Or Katie..

Well, they've made the decision ..let's see where it takes them

This Team did well at the WC, where they were well out of their league ...they were seeded too high in the competition..and it showed.

I suspect they'll struggle to qualify again anytime soon !

I suspect

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045137#Comment_121045137

I’ve seen a few comments by male footballers who outlined their clubs unhappiness with their weight particularly when they return for pre season. Real Madrid apparently were very unhappy with Eden Hazard, MU with Romulu Lukaku. It seems strange to me that there would be an issue with a coach having a problem with over weight football players, but it does not surprise me that American players would have a problem being told that they had to run their fat assess around the pitch and eat less burgers. I couldn’t imagine the Dublin ladies team having an issue with being told they needed to improve their fitness if they wanted to perform at an elite level.

So I would say that “smoke” relating to fitness, is about as thick as a vape.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045205#Comment_121045205

No one remembers Saipan 2006.

But everyone remembers Saipan 2002.

DownByTheGarden

So much drama with womens football that is nothing to do with the actual sport.

MacDanger

Not sure this will work out well for us, it all depends on who is selected to replace her.

I don't think the reason for not renewing can be anything related to the allegations from last Dec - once she was kept on after that, the FAI effectively accepted her version of events.

IMO, she was 100% right in the McCabe incident but maybe the poor communication between the two was sympomatic of their relationship and Pauw as manager has to take most of the responsibility for that.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045385#Comment_121045385

Can you please provide some examples of this drama you are referring to or is this just some sexist crap?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045416#Comment_121045416

You haven’t seen a news item about ladies football since the WC final, have you?

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058311421/no-new-contract-for-vera-pauw

Excellent news to wake up to. Ireland will be Pauws last ever job. Very toxic woman.

Vinnie222

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045217#Comment_121045217

I couldn't care about the men's team. I'm just saying this team was over hype. Vera did an amazing job. Let's see how this team will get on now.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045444#Comment_121045444

Go on, let’s hear it.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045278#Comment_121045278

Except for the fact that the girl that Pauw called overweight, and encouraged to keep losing weight even when gaunt, ended up so thin and ill that she had to quit the game.

the.red.baron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045138#Comment_121045138

i think Rugby is the outlier there bud

Its a sport with a tiny footprint

Thelonious Monk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045385#Comment_121045385

Ha not like the men. The Premiership is a bloody soap opera, that's why I love it.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045449#Comment_121045449

Encouraged the girl in US to get so gaunt she had to quit football.

Bullied Tyler Toland out of the Ireland setup. Publicly tried to shame her when her father phoned to find out what was going on (She was 16 and a minor so her father had every right to ask).

Deeply unlikeable person

DellyBelly

Strange ow they get rid of a successful manager while holding onto a guy that is totally out of his depth.....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045454#Comment_121045454

If she was overweight to start with, you think a professional coach should say to a professional player that it is fine to be overweight and underperforming?

Get a grip, this is professional sport, not the local pub league, players are expected to be in peak athletic condition, not over weight. If that is your idea of toxic, then every professional club that doesn’t allow over weight players to be picked is toxic.

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045449#Comment_121045449

She told certain players that they needed to be fitter so that the team would do better, and she didn't make the exact substitution in a game that Katie "Roy Keane" McCabe wanted, at the exact moment that Katie wanted it. She also tried to bring better players into the squad, so that the team would do better. You know, awful stuff like that...

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045465#Comment_121045465

He'll be gone by Christmas as well thankfully.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045462#Comment_121045462

I have no idea what that is about, but this is the senior ladies international team, not a cresh.

Pep Guadiola is widely recognised as the best coach in world football, possibly one of the best ever, try Googling articles about what it is like to play for him, the intensity, the criticism that happens if he thinks your standards have fallen, how he discards players who don’t perform. And on topic, his treatment of current player Kalvin Phillips who the club believe did not manage his weight last season.

So again, if your career is as an elite sportsperson, the basic requirement should be that you present in the required physical condition when attending work and collecting a wage.

micks_address

i guess its not a surprise the contract wasn't renewed - it would be worse for the FAI if they renewed and more allegations or whatever turned up in the comings months/years.. it does seem like she has a very direct approach.. commentators attribute it to the 'dutch' way of being very direct... from a play perspective it did seem to look like what jack did with the lads back in the day, play to your strengths etc when the team maybe feel like they can do better than a defensive mind set.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2023/0829/1402281-pauw-strengths-and-weaknesses-tapped-from-the-same-well/

I think Vera will be snapped up elsewhere very quickly. We will struggle to get a replacement as good.

Boggles

She demanded the best and a level of elite professional.

She had to go, absolutely no room for that craic in Irish football.

Hopefully the next manager allows the players to pick the team.

Montage of Feck

I liked Vera, came across as a stern no nonsense type obviously not compatible with the fai culture of ineptitude.

TokTik

Her contract is up so free to get rid of. Kenny has a break clause in his, so if we lose to France and Holland next week, he’ll be gone too hopefully.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045465#Comment_121045465

Her contract is up so free to get rid of. Kenny has a break clause in his, so if we lose to France and Holland next week, he’ll be gone too hopefully.

Egos on the women's team pushed her out. Very disappointing.

By getting us to world cup is progress. She had earned herself another contract.

They seemed United at qualification but think there has been infighting/personal relationships broken up on the team that has created a toxic atmosphere.

Jack Daw

Huge pressure on the players now going forward.Sacking the only manager to get the womens team to a major tournament the only manager who managed to get the team into the public conciseness is a very odd decision in my opinion.She's by far the best manager the team have ever had.

Strikes me she's been unfairly scapegoated because of the report from the US which to sensible people is essentially a non incident. If a coach of a professional team cannot ask players to improve conditioning without the players complaining and saying it damages their mental health then maybe said players should have chosen a career outside playing professional sport.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045432#Comment_121045432

I've seen plenty of articles. Still not as many newspaper inches when compared to the mens team!

Maybe you (or @DownByTheGarden) can be a bit more specific about the "drama" referred to in this post which (to me) does appear to be sexist crap (so prove me wrong)...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045385#Comment_121045385

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045621#Comment_121045621

I think it is probably one of the first times a manager has been sacked who is regarded far higher by the actual match going fans over the players.

The FAI with the finger on the pulse again.

Meanwhile the absolute slow motion train crash in the men's setup draws to a torturous inevitable conclusion.

Kenny gets a new 5 year deal.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045468#Comment_121045468

The girl was encouraged by Pauw to keep losing weight, even when she had none on her up to the point that she had to quit football as she was so frail.

Did you miss the part in bold?? If you think that’s “professionalism” I hope you never coach ever. Don’t even download Football Manager.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045491#Comment_121045491

This is in no way the same as getting a players body fat down.

“Vera would just tell (the player) constantly she was too big, too slow. I saw the shift of her going to the gym after training every single day,” said one former player in the article.

“Throughout the year… she was losing so much weight,” said another player.

“And Vera would praise her… ‘you look so good, you look so fit’. But it was getting to a point where it was not healthy.

"She ended up having to quit soccer because she couldn’t play anymore and Vera would not listen.”

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045743#Comment_121045743

She lead that team to their highest finish in their history.

Pauw says this is not correct and she only noticed the player’s weight loss during the last two weeks of the season. “I had asked (the) medical (department), ‘Is she doing OK?’. ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s under control’, that was the remark I got.

“She made the full season. It was not that she was dropping out earlier… it was the last two weeks.

“I did my job to get players fit. I give feedback to a player who’s getting fitter and it’s turned into that I am telling her it’s OK that she lost weight.

“If I would have been a male it would not have happened at all. Look at Pep Guardiola and what he said about (Kalvin) Phillips. I would never ever even in my dreams have taken that into my mouth.”

The joint investigation also reported that, at the end of the 2018 season, “a player had raised concerns to Pauw that Pauw’s mistreatment had caused a team-mate’s eating disorder”.

Pauw denied having any role in the player’s eating disorder and told the investigation that the reporting player should have “tak(en) responsibility as an adult” for her team-mate.

Pauw told The Athletic the player said in her exit interview that her team-mate’s disordered eating had been going on for five months.

“I asked her, ‘Why did you not say anything to the medical staff or to me or to anyone you trust outside the club to get help for her?,” said Pauw. “’You are an adult. Why did you not take responsibility when you saw her throw her food away?’ Can I not say this?”

For context this all happened at the height of the MeToo movement where everyone was a Witch.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045640#Comment_121045640

Well if you dont want to know what drama is surrounding womens football im afraid you cant be helped. Nodody is going to be able to explain it to you if you cant see it yourself. Its not exactly like it has to be searched for. The only reason you wouldnt be able to see it is you dont want to see it.

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045806#Comment_121045806

That’s ok then. Fcuk the girl who had her health and career destroyed, the club did well. There’s a reason Pauw is banned from coaching in the US.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045823#Comment_121045823

Are you referring to the drama whereby the women are being groped, etc?

Are you referring to the drama where the women are being treated completely differently to their male equivalents by members of their sporting bodies?

Or are you referring to some other drama?

Like I said, you're making sexist claims and seem reluctant to back down!

Furze99

She lost the dressing room, plain & simple.

There must be reasons for that and presumably they'll come out in due course.

griffin100

An ex female player pointed out this morning on the radio that in qualifying for the World Cup we got a very easy group and that Pauw never got a victory against a team that was ranked higher than Ireland. Her best result was a draw with a higher ranked team (Sweden). From what I can see players have never been open in their support for her, and that say's a lot. I'm sure it'll all come out when the players' books for the Christmas market come out.

gmisk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045658#Comment_121045658

I think there is a break clause in Kenny's contract so he might not be around much longer.

https://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/stephen-kenny-september-qualifiers-289653

It's a shame about Pauw but felt like it was becoming more and more likely, as usual though lack of forward planning in FAI I seriously doubt anyone else lined up to replace her.

iffandonlyif

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121046117#Comment_121046117

I’m sure what’s easy about a group with the home team and the then fifth-ranked team in the world.

DownByTheGarden

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045830#Comment_121045830

What are you referring to?

MisterAnarchy

I suppose the Fai have Stephanie Kenny lined up for the job now, jobs for the boys, er girls.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121045456#Comment_121045456

Fair point.