VERA PAUW SAYS it is a “shame” the Republic of Ireland women’s national team will not have an Aviva Stadium send-off ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
The Girls In Green will be sent on their way to their first-ever major tournament with a glamour friendly against France at Tallaght Stadium on Thursday, 6 July.
The FAI confirmed the fixture this week, and explained the choice of venue after talk had heightened of a potential move to Lansdowne Road. “We did explore the possibility of hosting this game in the Aviva Stadium, but it was not available due to scheduled pitch redevelopment work,” CEO Jonathan Hill said.
Pauw offered her thoughts on the matter this morning, as she announced her first squad of 2023 ahead of a 10-day training camp in Spain which concludes with an international friendly against China PR.
“We did investigate it and tried and tried and tried to see if we could move the schedule because it would have been a massive opportunity to try and have the send-off game — not so much as preparation, more that Ireland can see us.
“Tallaght Stadium, hopefully the new stand will be ready and will be open, with the availability for 10,000 people coming in. It’s our home ground, we feel happy there. We will make a massive party of it in Tallaght Stadium.
“We tried the RDS Stadium as an alternative and that wasn’t available either. We’ve done everything. We’ve tried to discuss the maintenance schedule, which is virtually impossible. It’s a shame.”
Pauw refused to be drawn on the notion that scheduled pitch maintenance had been put ahead of Ireland’s World Cup preparation.
“I don’t have an opinion on that. Everybody has been involved, everybody has been in very positive discussions. There’s also contracts involved so it is more than willing, because everybody wants us to improve and everybody wants us to succeed. It’s much more complicated than just a choice.”
The Dutch coach also sidestepped a question on whether it would be the team’s preference to play at the Aviva Stadium post-World Cup.
Calls have heightened in recent times for a switch to the 51,700-capacity Aviva from Tallaght, where the team’s record home crowd is 6,952, achieved against Finland in September 2022.
“This would have been a perfect moment because I think the send-off game, there’d be massive interest for it,” said Pauw.
“Moving forward, we have not discussed that. To be honest, we don’t look beyond the World Cup, everything we do now is to get the best out of our group for the World Cup.”
They kick off their tournament against co-hosts Australia in a blockbuster opener at the 83,000-capacity Stadium Australia in Sydney on 20 July, the Group B showdown moved from Sydney Football Stadium due to high demand for tickets.
“Fantastic. More Irish people can come in, because it was sold out before the draw already and we were very frustrated that we only had 1700 tickets.
“Now the Irish people living in Australia and the extra fans who want to travel to Australia might have the chance… the division of the tickets has not been done but I think Fifa has something for us.”
Pauw added that she’s “not concerned” about the jump to a bigger cauldron and huge number of fans. “The very special thing about this group is that they do not perform less or different when they play for five spectators or when the stadium is full.”
The Irish boss also spoke about Katie McCabe after an eventful few weeks for her captain.
The Arsenal star was linked with a big-money move to Chelsea ahead of deadline day in January, and left out of Arsenal’s starting XI for two successive league games, generating no shortage of conversation. Off The Ball reported last night that a chest infection hampered her recent involvement.
“Ruesha’s sister is a journalist (Shebahn Aherne) so she revealed last night that Katie had a chest infection. There is no concern about it, coaches make choices and we have to accept that. There are more players with bench minutes, we have no concern about it.”
Pauw also believes that the Chelsea rumour will not be a distraction for the 27-year-old Dubliner. “She said it was a big hassle but it all went through her agent. Of course she was proud about the interest but she also understands the stand of Arsenal.”
