Vera Pauw: 'There is a person that has targeted to destroy my career'

DEFIANT: Manager Vera Pauw and Katie McCabe during a Republic of Ireland women press conference at Tallaght Stadium. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

It was always likely that allegations levelled against Vera Pauw late last year from her time at Houston Dash would cast a cloud on the Republic of Ireland’s summer.

So it came to pass as the coach and her captain Katie McCabe faced the media before tonight’s friendly against France.

“It’s been a pleasure talking about the World Cup, guys,” said McCabe after a near-half-hour press conference that was, predictably, dominated by more recent claims in The Athletic against Pauw that she had been physically aggressive with players at the Dash and her own consistent denials.

“Really appreciate it.” It could never have been any other way.

Four Dash players and three staff members were quoted anonymously in the piece published this week with claims that the Dutchwoman was abusive and treated players inappropriately during her one season at the American club. That follows on from alleged weight-shaming claims made in 2022.

Pauw has denied all of these and claims that one club employee even threatened to shoot her during her time at the club after she moved training to an evening slot. She has also spoken of 12 statements from past players and assistants supporting her work.

The Ireland boss was one of eight coaches sanctioned by the NWSL late last year following a report compiled on US soccer, and she followed up denials at that time by appointing an attorney Thomas Newkirk to work on her case.

She spoke yesterday about how the latest allegations were merely more of the same “nonsense”, how they were made again by anonymous sources, and she took issue with aspects of the publication’s approach to the article itself.

There was also a message of support read out from Dutch journalist and broadcaster Barbra Barend who was involved in the uncovering of abuse in gymnastics, and a declaration that her players with Ireland basically have her back.

“You can’t defend yourself against a lie,” she said at one point.

Republic of Ireland Manager, Vera Pauw, coaches during a training session at the Tallaght Stadium,

What’s clear is that this will drag on and on and that it will continue to overshadow the women’s team’s historic first appearance at a senior major tournament. McCabe admitted it was a distraction and Pauw believes the timing of it is significant in itself.

“There is a person that has targeted to destroy my career… and that’s the way I want to keep it. This agenda is known, this agenda has been on Twitter, this agenda is with me and I have said that after the World Cup I am going to see if we go to take legal actions. But for now this strategy works.”

When pushed for further details, she said that the person in question, who she would not name, is linked to the US but not the Houston Dash. The effect of what she admitted was a “draining” 24 hours was apparent on her face and in her voice as she sat at the top table.

It does not appear to be at any kind of tipping point just yet but where all this leaves contract talks between her representative Ciaran Medlar and the FAI over a deal to continue on from an agreement that runs out after the World Cup remains to be seen.

Pauw insisted that those talks were still ongoing and that she is happy in, and with, Ireland. McCabe, for her part, said that it was not her decision to make when asked if she would like to see her boss remain in the role for the upcoming Nations League.

The Arsenal star also said that she could not answer for every player in the 23-strong squad as to whether they were happy with Pauw’s take on the allegations but that, while the pair had clashed at times, it has always been in a professional and challenging manner.

Pauw also gave her take on her dealings with The Athletic at the time when the article was being researched and explained that she had initially responded to a survey from the outlet on player safety, which she supported, by asking when they would do similar for female coaches.

She claimed proof of support for her from former Dash players and supplied to the journalists was not used in the piece and she mentioned again the class action in the US being taken by her and 225 other female coaches over their treatment by various sporting bodies.

None of these allegations, she insisted, would be applicable to a male coach. Double standards was the phrase used.

“Well, go through the allegations and just put (Pep) Guardiola or Louis van Gaal or (Jose) Mourinho in that. You’d actually laugh about it because it's all about coaching. 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, the people who know me, the people who saw me working know that it is not true.

"There's not one single person who knows me for a long time who has put any question mark behind it.”