Republic of Ireland Women’s Manager Vera Pauw has come out swinging in defence of her reputation after a report into coaching at Houston Dash cast a shadow over her year spent there.
In a statement and a media briefing at FAI HQ today she has called the allegations that she body shamed individuals “false” and “an insult to my personal values”.
“To suggest I would body shame any human being, footballer or not, is an insult to my personal values,” she said.
“I cannot allow this claim to go unchallenged.”
“Player welfare has always been of the utmost importance to me throughout my career. Nutrition is a hugely important aspect of professional football and my advice to players has always been to look after their nutritional needs and their health – and to always seek the advice of medical experts.”
Neither Pauw nor the FAI was given any notice of the report being published, which it was on Wednesday as the World Cup Semi-Final between France and Morocco was being played.
It says that she also refused to cooperate with the investigation but provided “a written denial of what she suspected were the allegations against her”.
This has also been strenuously denied today.
“I accepted an invitation to join a video call, on 29 September, on which there were four people and me,” she said.
“I asked to record the call but they said that this could not happen and they refused to answer any of my questions before they ended the call. I then wrote a 13-page letter to outline my experience of my time at Houston and offered to re-engage with them but they never responded.”
“I would like to express my disappointment at the manner in which this investigation was conducted, the way I was treated when I tried to engage with the investigation, and the lack of engagement around the publication of the report and statements to the media.”
The FAI is standing firmly behind the manager as they did when she revealed in the summer the abuse she had suffered in the Netherlands as a young female coach.
This has been some year for her and one can only imagine the feelings of anger and sadness that being hauled into a report into much more serious allegations about the coach who succeeded her at the club.
Being a manager can sometimes feel like being on a tightrope in the wind. You are dealing with players that are younger than you, and having to exert a degree of discipline to help them achieve their personal best as part of a team.
Generally, if you are picking a team of 11 from a panel of 22, half of the group will be disappointed, and some may not handle the implied rejection at all well.
Sport is fabulous but it can also be brutal on those who we ask to entertain us and lift our spirits.
Throwing blame can sometimes be a very human reaction. For a club and a league to do so though is unacceptable and Pauw is right not to hide away in defence of her good name and her personal values.
