Ian Mallon: Women’s World Cup review cannot repeat Euro 2016 whitewash
![Ian Mallon: Women’s World Cup review cannot repeat Euro 2016 whitewash Ian Mallon: Women’s World Cup review cannot repeat Euro 2016 whitewash](/cms_media/module_img/7401/3700774_2_articlesmall_2590988.jpg)
IRISH EYES ARE SMILING: Manager Vera Pauw during a Republic of Ireland homecoming event on O'Connell Street in Dublin following the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
WITH the internal review into the Women’s World Cup underway at the FAI, already the contrasting views within the association are that it will go in one of two extreme directions – ‘Witch Hunt’ or ‘Whitewash’.
If it goes the way of the former, the report will be used as a document to force the exit of Vera Pauw, as tolerance levels towards the coach continue to plummet.
Should it take, as others suggest, a more meaningless form and it’s not formalised or given the visibility required, it will remain in some virtual or dusty space within the office of David Courell - the man overseeing the inquiry.
In the interests of objectivity and fairness, Courell would have been best served to have appointed an outside expert to review the tournament, but the FAI Chief Operating Officer has chosen the less transparent route.
He will do well not to repeat the FAI’s previous post-tournament examination into Euro 2016, a tournament with perhaps an even greater number of incidents, though none came to public attention like with this tournament.
Much of the Ireland camp controversies in France did not centre around the manager or the players, and instead were due to various shortcomings from the very top of the organisation.
Euro 2016 had internal controversy and risk from start to finish, beginning with a skip of training and footballing equipment left behind in Ireland, and ending with the tearful resignation of a key member of staff at arrivals in Dublin Airport, 19 days later.
The first major incident occurred as the team and backroom staff arrived on the official CityJet-sponsored charter, to discover eight family members of two of the FAI’s official travelling party already on board.
None of the group had been recorded on the official flight manifest, shared with the operational team prior to departure, and their presence caused consternation amongst some of the Ireland delegation.
Once the plane was Paris-bound it was revealed to the operational team that a skip was unaccounted for in the hold, a particularly agonising experience for some, with Roy Keane and his historic intolerance for such shambles, sitting at the front of the plane.
The sense of calamity continued almost immediately upon arrival at the lavish Trianon Palace Hotel in Versailles, where Aiden McGeady’s family had also arrived to stay, in what was supposed to be a sacrosanct team HQ.
Manager Martin O’Neill ‘encouraged’ the player to find the group alternative accommodation and the FAI launched an inquiry into how it missed these guests on the hotel room lists which had been provided in advance of the Euros.
As the tournament progressed, there was further incident and accident, none more incredible than when it was brought to the FAI’s attention about the condition of one of the player’s rooms following a night of heavy drinking.
The matter caused outrage among the senior hotel management and the incident took a series of meetings and a compensation payment to rectify.
Despite this episode, the drinking culture wasn’t quite on the same scale as at Euro 2012, but there was certainly enough of it going on amongst certain officials to cause concern, particularly when a group left the site to visit bars in Versailles one evening.
This resulted in a screaming and shouting session at a team operational meeting the following morning, an incident which quite literally threatened to split the camp.
Apart from the bedroom incident, much of what went on was part of the normal cut and thrust of being locked away with up to 70 others for five weeks, including the pre-tournament camp at Fota Island.
It rightly required an immediate review, including how tickets were channelled to preferred fans and around the complete lack of budgetary or financial accountability into the costs of running the ‘live’ tournament operation (from the FAI’s eventual €11m prize purse).
There was no detail sought into how the FAI failed to institute Fan’s Embassies in France - which UEFA had mandated through Football Supporters Europe - who terminated an agreement with the association after it failed to provide an adequate service.
And so the inquiry was a whitewash, with no real scope to establish areas of improvement, with no findings ever published or shared with those who should have been part of that process.
The general view was things couldn’t have gone any better – and in many ways the tournament had been a resounding success for Ireland and the FAI – far better than in 2012 when Ireland’s three defeats and the CEO’s behaviour were the talking points.
Indeed before the tournament much of the concern centred around mass evacuation and security protocols following a spate of atrocities in the lead-up to the Euros.
On the football side, Martin O’Neill and the team had performed well, narrowly losing to hosts France in the last 16, while Ireland’s fans were the toast of the world, receiving official commendation and award from the Parisian Mayor for their exemplary behaviour.
While a report was ordered upon returning to Ireland, it was felt it was more a cursory than critical desire.
The current FAI review into the Women’s World Cup is however a different proposition, where the focus will centre on the repeat controversies involving the manager and certain team members.
It will establish how Vera Pauw lost the dressing room and how that lack of authority led to such a breakdown in relations with certain players.
It will also focus on ongoing allegations from the US, and whether Pauw contributed with permission to an article in The Athletic – which she says she didn’t - a piece which overshadowed Ireland’s presence in Australia.
What form this review takes, it cannot be, as the FAI said last week - a “standard practice” assessment, because standard practice for the association’s last post-tournament inquiry carried no meaning or consequence.
ANTHONY JOSHUA’s return to the ring this weekend against Robert Helenius will mark a major stepping stone for another fighter’s attempts to restore global domination.
As Joshua makes the first steps of what will be a fresh attempt to win back the heavyweight boxing crown at some point in the future, Conor McGregor hopes to establish his latest brand as a world leader in its own division.
McGregor’s Forged Irish Stout is an official partner for the fight, which was to take place with Dillian White, before the UK fighter’s failed drugs test last week.
Despite the late change and a new lesser known opponent, an Anthony Joshua fight is still box office, and will provide the perfect launchpad for McGregor’s brand strategy, which saw the product on shelves for the first time in the UK this week.
The Forged Irish Stout venture is another insight into McGregor’s ability to spot a gap in the market, following the incredible success and subsequent $600m sale of his Proper No Twelve whiskey brand.
The Pitch estimates that the drink, named after his Dublin pub – the Black Forge Inn - will achieve up to €20m in sales over the next 18 months, increasing production to extreme levels at his recently acquired Porterhouse Brewery in Glasnevin.
The stout will launch on the East Coast of the US later this year, as well as into markets around Europe, by which point it should be on its way to achieving a targeted sale of 15 million cans of draught by the end of 2024.
McGregor himself is as much a product of his own marketing ingenious, and the performance of his beer brand is expected to achieve even greater riches for the most valuable athlete in Irish sport.
FORMER Tennis Ireland CEO, ex-interim chief executive at Hockey Ireland and the once-FAI facilities director, Richard Fahey, is no longer the most influential sporting figure in his family.
The Cricket Ireland head of facilities and operations is celebrating with his 15-year-old son Adam who won a sensational Under 15 and Under 16 Irish Boys Golf Championship at Lisburn Golf Club last Friday.
In winning the titles, Adam Fahey is the first player to have won Under 13 (2021), Under 14 (2022), Under 15 and Under 16 national titles, something even Rory McIlroy hasn’t achieved.
The win for Adam was particularly satisfying for Portmarnock Golf Club, who the teenager was selected to represent following a string of offers from some of the country’s leading clubs.
Adam is also a member of Seapoint Golf Club in County Louth, where he started playing the game as a young child on the Des Smyth-designed links.