Her World Cup-bound stars have become renowned for their defensive grit, but Vera Pauw was very much on the front-foot yesterday as she tackled allegations that emerged in a US report earlier this week.
Allegations that she claimed made her feel “outlawed”.
On Friday she turned the heat onto the NWSL/NWSLPA joint investigation unit, whose report sent shockwaves through Irish football this week.
READ MORE: Vera Pauw gives her reaction to report into misconduct in the NWSL
Having written that Pauw had ‘appeared for but refused to cooperate in an interview’, they will now have to answer questions of their own.
Like, why did they not allow the Ireland manager to record a video exchange, where allegations of misconduct were going to be put to Pauw?
Instead, they noted at the end of a 128-page report into staff and coaches across the NWSL, that Pauw ‘provided a written denial of what she suspected were the allegations against her’.
She had that written denial, spanning 13 pages, with her yesterday at FAI headquarters in Abbotstown, where she faced questions about the report, which was released on Wednesday night.
Pauw had been due to speak with a smaller group of reporters - those who had followed her side home and away during their successful World Cup qualification campaign.
But it was decided on Friday morning, when offered the chance to bail on her media commitments, to open up the event to a wider audience.
On the front-foot once again - just as she was when she first learned of the investigation.
Also, before she met with the press, she issued a statement of her own on Twitter, expressing “disappointment” with how the investigation was done and refuting “every allegation” made against her.
There was much to unpack from Friday’s briefing, which ran for approximately 50 minutes. So perhaps it’s best to break it down.
Leaving Houston
Vera Pauw’s sudden departure from Houston Dash, she says, was “due to the atmosphere” at the club.
“My husband was there… After five days he said, ‘I am coming home and taking you with me, I do not accept the way you are being treated there by those players’.”
Asked to elaborate, she replied: “Swearing, cursing, shouting, everything. I even made a joke of it - every f-word we put a dollar in a jar and give it to charity.
“We never did it, because I’m not punishing, but I have tried everything to stop all the f-words and all the swearing and cursing.”
The investigation
In denying a lack of cooperation, Pauw explained that she first learned of the investigation on September 28, when she received a letter asking if she would like to participate in the inquiry.
“I immediately reacted,” she said on Friday. “I said, ‘I want to have it very quickly because I want to know what’s going on and what I am accused of’.
“We had a video call the next morning. There were four people there. One did not put on the camera.
“I asked for a video call because I wanted them to look me in the eyes.
“I said, ‘Out of politeness, I’ll let you know that I am recording this’... I was on my own, nobody with me… I wanted to have a recording and proof of what I’d be saying.
“There was at first silence, and then they said, ‘Well nobody else asked for it, I don’t think we’d agree with that’.
“I said, ‘I need to protect myself, the words that I’m saying, that those are the words we are really using, that you are going to use’.”
Having said no, the investigators, according to Pauw, went off for 15 minutes before coming back and reiterating their stance. Pauw wanted to know why and that led to them ending the call.
“They said, ‘We clearly feel you don’t trust us and you don’t trust our objectivity’, and we ended the call. They didn’t even say goodbye.”
Denials
Pauw was accused in the report of commenting on the weight and size of players.
She rebutted: “That’s absolute nonsense. I don’t care about the body composition of players.
“I don’t care about fat percentage, I care about whether they can execute their tasks… We have different bodies and it’s about how you execute your tasks.”
It was claimed in the report that Pauw encouraged players to eat less, but she responded: “If anything, the only thing I have been asking is, ‘Get enough intake, get enough before the game, get enough after the game, get your protein shakes after the training’.
“I’ve never spoken about eating less, only about eating more because most of the players did not eat enough.”
She was also accused in the report of using the word ‘bulky’ when talking about players engaging in weight training. According to Pauw, it was a player who first used the word and… “Every time that that came up, I said - and I'd quote the player - 'As this player said, you call it bulky'.”
Weightlifting
This was one area of the report where Pauw concurred.
She explained: “They said ‘we couldn’t do our weightlifting programme’. That is right, I advised them not to do weightlifting.
“It’s very technical but on the big muscle groups you get strength whereas in football you need to move from the core.
“That brings groin injuries, hamstring injuries and, especially, ACL ruptures.
“That is why I advised against weightlifting and they use it now as, what did they say, I had excessive control over their lives.”
Backing
Yesterday, in Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, one of Pauw’s former players Janine van Wyk launched a staunch defence of her former Houston Dash manager.
Van Wyk, who also played under Pauw for South Africa, blasted: “The allegations against Vera are ridiculous.
“Vera is one of the best women's coaches in the world right now and I'm proud to have worked with her.
“It is always Vera's intention to get the best out of an individual, so that the team benefits from it.
“Certain players may have confused this with a certain type of abuse, as they may not have been challenged enough at an earlier stage by other trainers to get the most out of themselves.”
Pauw also said yesterday that she received the backing of several of her current Ireland players, including skipper Katie McCabe.
Another backer was FAI chief executive Jonathan Hill, while president Gerry McAnaney attended yesterday’s press conference in a show of support for the manager,
What's Next?
“We are looking into if legal actions are necessary. But who would you bring forward? The players? The investigators? NWSL? I don't know,” Pauw said.
“But if there is an opening, and if the way that the investigators have treated is out of the lines of legality, then I will take action. I have to protect myself if I can protect myself.”
Pauw added: “I am planning to (contact Houston Dash over their statement apologising for the misconduct of their former coaches).
“But I thought I first needed to discuss with the FAI and I need to be open to my employer before I go to do anything. So I have not done anything else.”
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