EUROS WIN TO GROW THE WOMEN’S GAME HERE
English WSL.
“Sure it is too late to get into the WSL at the top end but should the FAI/Ireland or one of the Irish clubs look to go fulltime and get into a lower league and work their way up?
“Yes, yes, yes!
“Yes, because right now we have a drain of players, three from Shelbourne in the last week alone, going cross-channel.
“Yes, because we already have players at clubs in the WSL: Katie McCabe is an absolute superstar at Arsenal, Megan Walsh and Megan Connolly are at Brighton.
“Leanne and Niamh also have Megan Campbell at Liverpool and there is more ... Ruesha Littlejohn at Aston Villa, Grace Moloney at Reading.
“Yes, because this is the league that could drive the Ireland team, if we have even mote regular starters in the WSL we have the players capable of being really competitive at the Euros or a World Cup.
“I never wanted to move from Dublin when I was younger and I had lots of offers from England.
“But they all came down to the same thing: I would have to work during the day. It was just amateur stuff with another name.
“Right now, the way things are, I wouldn’t just jump at it, I am telling you I would be playing centre-forward for the only club for me, Manchester United!”
Meanwhile, more can be done to facilitate Pauw and her players.
“This World Cup qualifying has gone better than many expected and the match against Finland at the 8,000-capacity or so Tallaght Stadium next month (September 1st) is sold out.
Base
“Tallaght Stadium has been the right stadium for this team and I wouldn’t dream of suggesting moving them from a base in a vast expanse of Dublin surrounded by so many playing and interested in football.
“But they are playing on the wrong days: our girls are way past Tuesday and Thursday nights, they should be Friday or Saturday nights, Saturday or Sunday afternoons.
“There are people from all over the country who want to watch this side and it is wrong not to give them there chance.
How do you get from Waterford or Mayo and back home on a weekday night, you can’t.”
O’Toole says, right now, Ireland have a chance to get the women’s/ girls games aligned.
Now is the time to think about the seven year olds who want to play; the teenagers who want to play; club players who need a better structure.
“We have to do better for young girls than the laughable €60 a day soccer camps for kids.
“It is to expensive and there is nothing like the coaching expertise needed when you have that many kids in a field.”
Also the League of Ireland with its gilded access to European football; trying to get a franchise into the professional game; the Ireland U20s and senior international team.
“There has been a lot happening recently and there could be a temptation to throw you hands in the air and say ‘it is too much’ and that ‘we can’t cope’.
“Right now girl’s/women’s football in Ireland is being provided with an incredible opening,” says O’Toole.
“But need to capitalise, the game could explode on the back of England’s win, World Cup qualification and a World Cup looming.”