VERA PAUW FEARS a new European Championships format will be “detrimental” to the development of the women’s game — and could result in it being “virtually impossible” for the Republic of Ireland to qualify going forward.
The Girls in Green manager was reflecting on Uefa Women’s Euro 2022 at her squad announcement press conference yesterday when she raised her concerns.
Pauw predicted her side “would have showed the world that we’re on our way” had they featured at last month’s finals in England.
“The key thing is the Euros is a reflection on the money,” she picked up. “It’s a pity that in our game the big money goes to the top, the second tier is forgotten and the third tier gets the support to develop to the second tier.
“There are plans to create a first, second and third tier in the next qualification campaign. That will be detrimental to the game’s development. I think we should focus on that for this moment, from the policy point of view. Jonathan Hill is dealing with that.”
The FAI CEO is due to meet with Uefa President Aleksander Čeferin on Monday to discuss the new format — essentially like the men’s Nations League.
“The issue is that it’s on the table, and it’s a bit ‘five to 12′. It’s almost decided,” Pauw added, with it potentially coming into play for the next European Championships.
Ireland oppose, with Pauw going on to explain why it would be “detrimental” to the development of the women’s game. The top 16 countries based on Uefa’s coefficient points, not including friendly games, would be in the top tier. Ireland would be in the second tier, along with the likes of Scotland and Wales. In time, a group winner in the second tier would then play a second-placed team from the top, having not been exposed opponents of that calibre for some time, with no room for friendlies.
“It means the chance of qualifying will be minimised instead of being open to the second tier. The top teams will go away from the rest and stop the game’s development.
“It is for the top teams and lowest teams who are not happy with the big scores. We’ve done that ourselves but having the second tier as well, instead of developing the lower countries and creating opportunities for them, is I believe truly not the right way to go.
“It is being discussed in the working group but there were no second tier representatives in that group. We need to be careful and rethink this programme. It is being done with all good intentions but we need to discuss it with each other one more time.
“I hope it will be rethought. Usually not, but in this case we need to have an extra discussion about it, and the second tier have not been involved in that discussion, if we can find a better way. It would be good for the whole game to have a discussion to find a better way to deal with this.”
Pauw claims the Euros “already showed” that the bigger nations will push on.
“England has the best league with the most money, Germany next and third is France. You can say it’s the same as men also but the women’s game hasn’t developed to a stage that it can take care of itself.
“It’s been already for a while that they have invested a lot in the top, then the issue is that the association needs to take care of the second tier. The ones with money get more money, the ones with average get nothing, the ones with no money get support. That’s the situation at the moment.”
There’s “a lot of support” from other coaches, Pauw nods, with plans in place for Hill’s meeting with Čeferin.
“We will have it ready for him, what the consequences are, Uefa decide and they have good intentions for the game, without Uefa and Fifa we would not be where we are, we’re not against good intentions, this is being done with good intentions, but in this case, the expertise of sports development needs to stand up and have another discussion about it, see if we can succeed. Small changes can make big differences.”
Pauw insisted she was speaking from her “sports development heart” with her full focus on Ireland’s 2023 World Cup qualifying campaign and the upcoming decisive double-header, as she refused to look too far into the future.
“I’ve not thought about that, we have the game with Finland, a huge game that needs all our energy and attention, see if we can get a result from that, after Finland we make a plan for Slovakia and the rest will come but it needs to be discussed now.”
She watched the Finns at the Euros and believes they are a better team now than last October, when Ireland won 2-1 in Helsinki. “I was actually very impressed by their play,” she noted, despite their poor record of three defeats from three, eight goals conceded and just one scored, and the subsequent sacking of Anna Signeul.
Likewise, she wouldn’t be properly drawn on the convoluted play-off route which could potentially lie ahead.
“First Finland, because as we say in Dutch, ‘Don’t sell the skin of a bear before you shoot him.’ (Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, to us.)
“It is a very hard and long road to go still. I know that everyone is excited. We are also excited for the position where we are. We deserve it but we have to be realistic and go game by game. Hard route, very hard route.”
