Pitch maintenance denies Ireland's women perfect Aviva Stadium send-off 

“It’s a shame - not so much for preparation, more a massive opportunity that Ireland can see us,” Vera Pauw says.

NO PERFECT SEND OFF: Vera Pauw insists the FAI were helpless to avoid Ireland’s women being denied their “perfect send-off” for the World Cup at Aviva Stadium. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Vera Pauw insists the FAI were helpless to avoid Ireland’s women being denied their “perfect send-off” for the World Cup at Aviva Stadium.

Most countries across Europe allow both their men’s and women’s team to use their national stadium and it felt opportune for Ireland to embrace the concept once they ended their qualification drought.

However, it only emerged as the FAI announced that friendly against France on July 6 that access to the 51,000-capacity Aviva was unavailable due to “pitch renovations”.

Apparently, despite the FAI possessing a half share in the property, their co-owners on the rugby side have scheduled maintenance for the pre-World Cup friendlies.

Pauw, the Dutchwoman who took over in 2019, also revealed that the RDS close to Aviva was explored but they’ve settled on Tallaght Stadium. They face a battle against the clock for the fourth stand, expanding the seats from 7,600 to 10,300, to be opened in time.

“This would have been a perfect moment because I think the send-off game, there’d be massive interest for it,” said Pauw when announcing her squad for the friendly against China in Marbella on February 22.

“We did investigate it. We tried and tried and tried to see if we could move the schedule and discussed the maintenance schedule.

“We tried the RDS Stadium as an alternative and that wasn’t available either.

“It’s a shame - not so much for preparation, more a massive opportunity that Ireland can see us.” 

Pauw has drafted in former England squad member Aoife Mannion of Manchester United and American Marissa Sheva for the camp in Spain that entails a behind-closed doors game against Germany before the full international against the Chinese.

“We have invited a few new players in,” she explained. “There were difficult decisions made but we explained to the players in the November camp that we need all our moments to have the best squad in Australia.

“Some players are disappointed but everybody understands. The missing players are not out of the squad and we have to see others.

“Aoife Mannion is a central defender. She was on radar before she ruptured her ACL and has been playing games out of the radar, not on the streams.

“I have spoken to her coach (Mark Skinner) and he’s very happy that we invited her because she’s ready to get back to her old self.

“He can’t offer her competitive games so there’s very good cooperation with Manchester United. This is the only moment that we can decide whether we go ahead with her or not.

“Marissa is an attacking midfielder at Washington Spirit who came on the radar because she was already trying for three years to get her Irish passport and her whole heart is with Ireland.

“We were a bit surprised because usually it’s the other way around and we go to them. We could help her get the passport in that final phase. She’s over the moon because her family is from her and this is a dream come true.”