Sue Ronan is stepping down as Head Coach of the Republic of Ireland Women’s Senior International Soccer Team in order to put her entire focus into her role as Head of Women’s Football for the Football Association of Ireland.
The new role was introduced last year as part of major changes to the governance and organisation of women’s football and will allow Ronan to concentrate fully on ensuring the delivery of all the objectives of the FAI Women’s Strategic Plan.
The process leading up to the launch of that plan one year ago involved extensive consultation around the country and focused on five areas with specific targets to be reached by 2018.
They are Grassroots, Education, High Performance, Promotion, Marketing and Communication and Organisation and Infrastructure.
Development
Each area is broken down into the key areas for development and actions that will be taken to advance the reach and effectiveness of FAI programmes for the Women’s game across many different communities and areas.
“The FAI believes in the future of Women’s football and has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the development of the game,” said Women’s FAI Chairperson Niamh O’Donoghue at the time of the launch.
The securing of Continental Tyres as sponsor of the Women’s game here, as they are in Germany and England, has been a major step forward in terms of the promotion of the Women’s game and Ronan has played a key role in promoting their involvement.
Ronan’s career as Head Coach of the national team spanned three qualifying campaigns over six years and the surge of interest following on from Stephanie Roche’s wonder goal and shortlisting for the FIFA Goal of the Year.
Honour
“It has been an absolute honour to have had the opportunity to manage my country for the last six years,” said Ronan.
“While we unfortunately haven’t achieved our goal of qualifying for a final tournament, it has been a pleasure working with a such a group of dedicated players who have always given their all to me personally and for the green jersey.
“I feel with the experience we now have in this squad, along with the quality of youngsters currently on our underage teams, the future looks very bright and will ultimately lead us to that goal of playing amongst the elite of Europe at a major finals.
“In my role as Head of Women’s Football I will be striving to put the structures in place that are absolutely necessary for this team to take that next step, so it’s an exciting chapter in my career.
Commitment
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank my staff for all their efforts and commitment and I look forward to working with the players and new management team in my role going forward.”
“Sue is a big influence in all areas of Women’s football and I look forward to working more closely with her to help achieve the aims set out in the FAI Women’s Strategic Plan,” added FAI High Performance Director Ruud Dokter.
FAI CEO John Delaney paid tribute to Ronan as a “driving force in the women’s game”.
“Women’s football has made tremendous strides in Ireland over recent years thanks to the hard work of coaches, administrators, officials, volunteers, and people like Sue Ronan,” he said.
Improved
“Ireland is now recognised as one of the most improved nations in Europe when it comes to women’s football and Sue will continue to play a big part in that.
“From her work with the Women’s Senior Team to her championing of the Continental Tyres Women’s National League, she has been at the forefront of the development of the game.
Ronan will work closely with Chairperson of the Women’s Football Committee, Niamh O’Donoghue who added that she is looking forward to working with Ronan for what will be an “exciting time” for the development of the Women’s game.
“Sue brings a fantastic level of understanding and expertise to the role and was responsible for introducing new structures and approaches which added enormously to the professionalism of the squads,” said O’Donoghue.
Expertise
“I am genuinely delighted that Sue’s expertise will now be fully available to us in helping to develop the Women’s game. I look forward to continuing to work with her in what will be an extremely exciting time for the development of the game here.”
Ronan’s final game as Head Coach will be a friendly against a Basque Country XI in Tallaght Stadium on Saturday, November 26.
The recruitment process for a new Head Coach of the Ireland Women’s Senior Team will commence shortly and it is expected that an appointment will be made later this year.
