REPUBLIC OF IRELAND BOSS, VERA PAUW, has said she believes that the fresh allegations that emerged from The Athletic this week are part of a ploy to 'destroy her career'.
This week, new fresh allegations arose where four Houston Dash players and three staff members were quoted anonymously in the outlet about Pauw's alleged behaviour while working for the club.
The article states, 'Pauw’s behaviour included making comments about players’ weights and eating habits, wanting 'total control' over players' training, meals, and injury protocols, making disparaging comments towards American and English players, and becoming physically aggressive in at least two instances.'
However, in the article, the Ireland manager responded with 12 statements from players and assistant coaches during her time as manager of Scotland, South Africa, The Netherlands, and in Houston.
This follows on from the December 2022 allegations that the Ireland boss made similar weight-shaming claims to players.
Today, Ireland play France in their final game before jetting off for their inaugural World Cup. Wednesday's press conference was set to be about the Girls in Green's game vs France, but the press conference containing the Ireland boss and Ireland captain, Katie McCabe, was dominated by questions around Pauw's time in America.
🗣"You would actually laugh about [the allegations]."
🗣"It is nonsense. It is untrue. There is great safety in the truth."
Ireland manager Vera Pauw says that if she were a male coach the allegations made against her would be laughed off. pic.twitter.com/5CDFlc64kq
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) July 5, 2023
Pauw, speaking to reporters, claimed that there was an agenda at play before the World Cup and that one individual was trying to 'destroy her career'. Pauw declined to name the said person when asked who the person was.
“There is a person that has targeted to destroy my career… and that’s the way I want to keep it," said Pauw. "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 action. But for now, this strategy works.”
Pauw also raised the issue of 'double standards' in coaching. The 60-year-old claimed that if the alleged claims had come from a male coach, they wouldn't have generated as much publicity or attention. Pauw believes that there is gender bias at play.
“Well, go through the allegations and just put (Pep) Guardiola or Louis van Gaal or (Jose) Mourinho in that," she added. "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.”
Ireland's game against France is at 8pm and can be seen on RTÉ2
