VERA PAUW SAYS she will be prepared for any potential backlash as her Republic of Ireland women’s national football team travel to the USA for a World Cup warm-up double-header in April.
“It is not about me, it is about the players. I need to sacrifice myself,” she explained.
The Ireland manager remains determined to clear her name after allegations of misconduct were made against her in a NWSL/NWSLPA report released in December 2022.
The report alleged Pauw made comments regarding players’ weight and attempted to influence their eating habits during her time as manager of Houston Dash in 2018. The Dutch coach strongly denies all wrongdoing, refuting “every allegation made against me from my time at Houston Dash”.
The NWSL published a statement in January naming Pauw among eight individuals whose future employment in the league is “conditional”.
In April, she will bring her World Cup-bound Ireland team to Austin, Texas, and St Louis, Missouri, to face the all-conquering champions twice in three days.
“There were people asking me, ‘Do you dare to go back?’ and I am thinking, ‘Do I dare?’,” Pauw said ahead of her return to the States.
“But it is not about me, it’s about the players. They need to prepare for the World Cup. They need to get the best, best, best preparation that they can get.
“We get this on a plate and I would say no because of me? No, I need to go through it. There will probably be nastiness because there are probably people who want to prove themselves because they have been reading what is being said around it by the people who know me. But I will be ready for it.
“I will be prepared for it, I will get support for it, but it is about the players. The easiest thing was to say, ‘Oh no, jet lag,’ but it is about the players, it is not about me, so I need to sacrifice myself and whatever they put on me, fine.
“All that matters is they have the best preparation for the World Cup and that is why I am here.”
Pauw recently spoke about exploring legal avenues and her overall wish to “choose the educational side instead of the fighting”, and offered an update on those plans.
“That will be after the World Cup. That is the final decision we have agreed so I will not be busy with that now because the team needs my full energy.
“What we have been discussing is how we can get this message forward – I am the most visible coach so I am prepared to put myself on that block and to use me to make it better for other women. I am prepared to put my head on the block to at least get the discussion started.
“I am happy and I am lucky that I am in Ireland and you first saw me before this came out, and that you knew who I am.
“Education, and then we’ll see after the World Cup. The way I look at it now, I am not going to spend my life on that.”
Pauw also revealed that US Soccer originally approached the FAI about the pre-World Cup international friendlies.
“It came from them to us. That they want us at that moment is a huge compliment and it is a huge compliment to US Soccer and to the head coach Vlatko [Andonovski]. Vlatko knows me. He knows who I am. He knows that this is not me, what has been written.
Insisting the ongoing commentary and potential media circus would not be a distraction, Pauw added: “I will repeat what I have to say when they ask me [about the report].
“I need to get that on my shoulders. I will be strong. I will be ready for it. We come there to play football, and nothing else. I will be there with full energy and full capacity for the players.
“If you prepare yourself for that, you can do anything. If the crowd is going to boo or whatever, I will wave to them. We are there to prepare for the World Cup. It is not about me. It is about the players.”
