Vera Pauw has warned that UEFA could all but close the door to European Championships qualification on second-tier nations such as Ireland.
Plans to introduce a Nations League-style format into the women’s international calendar and do away with friendlies could make it nearly impossible for countries outside the elite bracket to break into major tournaments.
FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill is meeting with UEFA chief Aleksander Čeferin next week and will bring up the proposed changes.
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“There are plans to create a first, second and third tier in the next qualification campaign,” said Pauw.
“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.”
She continued: “The plans are the first tier will have the top 16 countries based on UEFA’s coefficient points, not including friendly games.
“For example, it would bring Ireland, as well as Scotland and Wales, into the second tier.
“Then the group winner from the second tier, after playing two years on the lower level, need to play the second team from the top tier.
“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. We are discussing that.”
The motivation behind the changes is to avoid the kind of heavy defeats that top countries inflict on Europe’s weaker nations.
Ireland scored a 20-0 aggregate win over Georgia in their two qualifiers during this World Cup campaign.
“We need to be careful and rethink this programme,” warned Pauw.
“It is being done with all good intentions, but we need to discuss it with each other one more time.”
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