FAI HEAD OF Women and Girls’ Football Hannah Dingley says improving facilities “needs to be our number one agenda” after unveiling a two-year action plan.
While there is no direct mention of facilities within the presentation, currently just 33% of amateur football clubs in Ireland have female-friendly toilet facilities.
Asked whether there is a target to improve that statistic, Dingley said: “That needs to be our number one agenda. If I can write headlines for you, can you put that as the number one agenda?
“It needs more than just me or just the FAI. We need a collective push in my opinion, in all sports, to make sure we give equal opportunities for when girls play sport by providing female changing facilities. So yes, drive it, push it everywhere we can. That’s what we’ve been saying internally to say to government, to councils, to anyone who’ll listen because it’s so important for a number of reasons; for women and girls, but also for safeguarding.
“If you think about young people and adults in the same spaces with no toilets, you think about girls who are on their period and don’t have sanitary bins. It’s such an important part. We really want to be pushing that. It will keep more girls in the game and it will encourage more girls to play our sport.”
FAI research revealed facilities as the “number one” issue leading girls to leave football amidst alarming drop-off rates, according to Dingley.
“Obviously, everyone wants pitches, everyone likes a nice 3G, but everyone is recognising the importance. In Dublin, there’s a lot of council-run facilities and it’s just a grass pitch. We need to be able to provide more than that.”
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Former Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
Dingley, meanwhile, remained coy on Eileen Gleeson’s employment within the FAI when the matter was raised mid interview.
“That’s an ongoing situation that I don’t know anything about,” she said, when asked if Gleeson was working in her department.
It was later established that the former Ireland boss and Head of Women and Girls’ Football still works for the FAI, but her role has not yet been defined — and it is not in Dingley’s department.
Gleeson was not offered a contract extension following Ireland’s failure to qualify for Euro 2025 in December, but it is understood the Dubliner had negotiated a clause in her contract that entitled her to return to a staff position at the end of her tenure.
Asked repeatedly if she would like to work with Gleeson going forward, Dingley described her predecessor as “a great help” and “an excellent, knowledgeable coach”.
Pressed for an answer on future collaboration, the Englishwoman said: “No comment.”
Dingley also confirmed that she herself has a permanent contract, despite reports before her appointment last year that the FAI had changed the job to fixed-term.
Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
One goal of the two-year action plan is to review the women’s international pathway.
A gap remains from U19 to senior level. In the absence of an U21 or U23 team, home-based training sessions were previously implemented — they also bridged a gap from the Women’s Premier Division — but they were discontinued in 2023.
“We want to review them, and people say we do a lot of reviews, but we really need to understand what was good about them, what wasn’t so good about them, how can we tie that into a U23 or U21 programme,” said Dingley.
A development group was introduced last month, and there will be “varied activities” in the majority of upcoming international windows as dialogue continues around a permanent measure.
“We call it a development group strategically because we don’t want to come out and say it is not U21 or U23 yet. But it is a stepping stone in that direction, and with the review of the pathway, that will inform what it turns into. Uefa’s aspiration is to have a competitive programme at U21s, if they introduce that, we would want to be part of it.”
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'Collective push' needed to improve facilities - FAI women and girls' football chief
FAI HEAD OF Women and Girls’ Football Hannah Dingley says improving facilities “needs to be our number one agenda” after unveiling a two-year action plan.
Dingley presented the 2025-2027 women and girls’ football action plan at Dublin’s Mansion House on Tuesday evening, with aims to “strengthen the foundations” and improve participation, pathways and performance.
While there is no direct mention of facilities within the presentation, currently just 33% of amateur football clubs in Ireland have female-friendly toilet facilities.
Asked whether there is a target to improve that statistic, Dingley said: “That needs to be our number one agenda. If I can write headlines for you, can you put that as the number one agenda?
“It needs more than just me or just the FAI. We need a collective push in my opinion, in all sports, to make sure we give equal opportunities for when girls play sport by providing female changing facilities. So yes, drive it, push it everywhere we can. That’s what we’ve been saying internally to say to government, to councils, to anyone who’ll listen because it’s so important for a number of reasons; for women and girls, but also for safeguarding.
“If you think about young people and adults in the same spaces with no toilets, you think about girls who are on their period and don’t have sanitary bins. It’s such an important part. We really want to be pushing that. It will keep more girls in the game and it will encourage more girls to play our sport.”
FAI research revealed facilities as the “number one” issue leading girls to leave football amidst alarming drop-off rates, according to Dingley.
“Obviously, everyone wants pitches, everyone likes a nice 3G, but everyone is recognising the importance. In Dublin, there’s a lot of council-run facilities and it’s just a grass pitch. We need to be able to provide more than that.”
Dingley, meanwhile, remained coy on Eileen Gleeson’s employment within the FAI when the matter was raised mid interview.
“That’s an ongoing situation that I don’t know anything about,” she said, when asked if Gleeson was working in her department.
It was later established that the former Ireland boss and Head of Women and Girls’ Football still works for the FAI, but her role has not yet been defined — and it is not in Dingley’s department.
Gleeson was not offered a contract extension following Ireland’s failure to qualify for Euro 2025 in December, but it is understood the Dubliner had negotiated a clause in her contract that entitled her to return to a staff position at the end of her tenure.
Asked repeatedly if she would like to work with Gleeson going forward, Dingley described her predecessor as “a great help” and “an excellent, knowledgeable coach”.
Pressed for an answer on future collaboration, the Englishwoman said: “No comment.”
Dingley also confirmed that she herself has a permanent contract, despite reports before her appointment last year that the FAI had changed the job to fixed-term.
One goal of the two-year action plan is to review the women’s international pathway.
A gap remains from U19 to senior level. In the absence of an U21 or U23 team, home-based training sessions were previously implemented — they also bridged a gap from the Women’s Premier Division — but they were discontinued in 2023.
“We want to review them, and people say we do a lot of reviews, but we really need to understand what was good about them, what wasn’t so good about them, how can we tie that into a U23 or U21 programme,” said Dingley.
A development group was introduced last month, and there will be “varied activities” in the majority of upcoming international windows as dialogue continues around a permanent measure.
“We call it a development group strategically because we don’t want to come out and say it is not U21 or U23 yet. But it is a stepping stone in that direction, and with the review of the pathway, that will inform what it turns into. Uefa’s aspiration is to have a competitive programme at U21s, if they introduce that, we would want to be part of it.”
Meanwhile, Dingley disagreed with Carla Ward’s assertion that qualification for the 2023 World Cup was an “overachievement”. The new Ireland head coach was quoted following the recent 4-0 drubbing to Slovenia, but denied using that exact word on Friday’s Late Late Show.
“I don’t think there’s such a thing. The girls had the talent to qualify and they qualified. That was amazing,” said Dingley.
“We have a really talented group and more talent coming through so I’m really excited to see where Carla leads the team over the next period.”
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