John Fallon: Canadian mutiny a watershed Ireland know all about too well

The empowerment felt by women to stand up and be heard is sure to manifest in further friction before a ball is kicked.

Wed, 01 Mar, 2023 - 06:16

WHEREAS the last World Cup Ireland participated in was overshadowed by pre-tournament chaos, it is our opponents enduring turmoil 21 years later.

Just 142 days remain until the women’s team embark on their first tournament and what a setting to mark the milestone.

Demand for the opener against co-hosts Australia on July 20 has already forced a venue upgrade to the 83,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Sydney.

The latest batch of 20,000 tickets released last Thursday sold out in 35 minutes. Fervour around this Australian team led by scoring sensation Sam Kerr has been building since they were awarded the hosting alongside New Zealand and the novelty factor of Ireland’s qualification breakthrough, along with a hefty expatriate community Down Under, has trained eyes on the Group B game.

Yet there’s more a sense of trepidation than excitement pervading the Canada team Ireland face in their second match, six days later in Perth.

It would be a tad opportunistic to revel in the upheaval experienced by our group opponents when they as Olympic gold medalists and ranked fifth in the world are favourites to claim one of the two tickets into the last 16.

And still the depths to the fractures evident between the squad and the federation responsible for their welfare are hugely significant.

Right now, it’s uncertain whether the Canadian players will answer their country’s call for the April friendly against France, let alone World Cup fare three months later. Not even news of federation president Nick Bontis quitting yesterday is likely to end the outcry.

At issue here from the players’ side is pay inequality and funding cuts.

In a move carrying shades of Ireland’s action in 2017, Canada’s squad refused to train and threatened to strike during this month’s SheBelieves Cup – only agreeing to face USA, Brazil, and Japan when threatened with legal action.

The matches, played under protest due to what the players branded a “disgusting” disparity in resources to the men’s team, resulted in three losses on an aggregate scoreline of 7-0 — unthinkable reverses when they reigned in Tokyo 18 months previously.

That triumph was no one-off, for Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt, and Desiree Scott had twice already collected medals on that global stage.

Skip forward to the present malaise and coach Bev Preistman is stuck in the middle, reportedly ready to walk herself unless a satisfactory outcome is found.

Though Bontis dressed up his swansong as a sacrifice for “an historic collective bargaining agreement,” his exit appears merely the first necessary step towards the fundamental change sought by the country’s trailblazers.

“There are two larger issues that exist within Canada Soccer,” Canada’s Chelsea star Jessie Fleming recently said. “They’re poor governance (financial mismanagement and lack of transparency) and gender inequality.

“Over the last two years, there have been significant funding discrepancies between women’s and men’s national programs.

“Both women’s and men’s national schedules have suffered significant budget cuts in 2023, which: affects our ability to properly prepare for the upcoming Women’s World Cup (and) starves our youth programmes of funding.

“We are not asking for money that does not exist in our organisation.”

Two Irish players familiar with the Canadian scene widened the concerns in their social media Response.

Men’s centurion Kevin Kilbane, settled there since 2020 and working in the Canadian media, deemed it appalling that despite Bontis’s downfall being hastened by a vote of no confidence internally, that Fifa allowed him to hold the position of Vice-President in Concacaf since Saturday’s annual conference.

More consistently outspoken about the issues afflicting Canadian sport is Ciara McCormack, the former Ireland international now living in Limerick and about to appear for Treaty United in the women’s Premier Division this weekend. Her blogs and appearance three months ago before a governmental national committee detailing historical abuses and cover-ups shone light on an undercurrent rarely highlighted across the women’s game in Canada.

Injustices of that ilk are likely to become further pronounced as a world audience tunes into the Summer extravaganza.

The bravery demonstrated by the Canadian players in taking the ultimate action to amplify their worries have been mirrored, in different guises, by players in the Spanish and French camps.

There was irony to Alexia Putellas on Monday in Paris adding the Best Fifa award to the Ballon D’Or she’d already picked up as the midfielder is supporting 15 of her players who’ve refused to represent Spain while Jorge Vilda remains in charge. Even if the Barcelona star recovers from a knee injury in time, she’s unlikely to grace the World platform, on a point of principle.

Player power is, by contrast to Spain, toppling heads in France. The resignation of Corinne Diacre is considered inevitable after captain Wendie Renard was joined in solidarity by Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Kadidiatou Diani in shouting stop at the coach’s system and conditions.

The empowerment felt by women to stand up and be heard is sure to manifest in further friction before a ball is kicked. From an Irish perspective, the hope is their rancour was condensed towards that blitz of nearly six years ago in Liberty Hall and won’t be channelled into a Saipan-style repeat.

FAI Connect a winner with fans but work to do on making fit for purpose

Hailed as transformative by the FAI, the new Connect App has proven a godsend to League of Ireland supporters.

Fixtures, kit colours, officials and team-lines are easily accessible on a handset, uploaded in real time to capture the immediacy of live football, especially on the first couple of Friday nights.

When the change is so seismic, glitches such as Tyreke Wilson being issued with a red card, rather than yellow, for Shelbourne at St Pat's can be attributed to teething difficulties.

After last weekend's underage leagues kicked off, the national complement will be completed on Saturday when the women's Premier season schedule gets added to the portal.

That's the good news.

The FAI Comet football management system, as it's known, isn't just for the professional aspect of the game, encompassing all layers, apart from the major Dublin underage leagues who have so far opted out for their own system.

Central player registration is the function that has caused most debate, delegating responsibility to clubs, rather than leagues, for retaining ownership of players.

Straddling different calendars – between the school format and the summer version favoured by the FAI – presents challenges but a series of anomalies have to be ironed out in the coming months to justify Connect as the panacea it's being trumpeted as.

Webinars are available to users but it won't be a surprise if the matter, as with the resumed AGM five weeks, gets ventilated during next Thursday's first 2023 meeting of the General Assembly – also being held online.

Back to the future for Ireland with Castore kit

Castore are going all retro with their inaugural Ireland jersey, to be worn for the first time in the March internationals.

The worst kept secret in Irish football is due to be aired in the coming weeks, with the English brand to be unveiled as the kit successor to Umbro, unceremoniously culled by the FAI from the contract last October over payment arrears.

Plans to champion the deal in the run-up to the game against Latvia on March 22 — but particularly the visit of France for Ireland’s opening Euro 2024 qualifier four days later — are well underway with a sizeable delegation from Abbotstown meeting with the supplier in England this week to finalise promotional material for the launch.

Jonathan Hill, the association’s chief executive, has been teasing the package as the most lucrative in the association’s history — just as well, given the absence of a marquee sponsor for three years — while the brand founders, Beahon brothers Tom and Phil, have flagged the imminent addition of their unnamed first-ever international client.

And we can reveal the home shirt is a throwback to the early 1980s, when the Republic of Ireland team managed by Eoin Hand wore a green O’Neill’s garment with a white pinstripe as the prominent feature.