Pauw’s emerging team guarantee bad old days will be left in the past
LIKE the Olympics, the World Cup now exerts a strained kind of glory.
That this year’s men’s edition is taking place in Qatar is a neat encapsulation of the grubby, venal impulses that have tarnished one of the great global sporting events.
But again in common with the Olympics, the history and grandeur of the World Cup sustains it through the scandals. Despite the efforts of some administrators over the years, the tournament is recognised as a pinnacle.
And that goes for the women’s edition, too.
Women’s football may be a much newer arrival in wider public awareness, not just in this country but globally, but that the prize at the end of the current qualifying process of a World Cup place is enough.
The newest of supporters understand that this is a big deal. That means, in sporting terms, that Ireland need to win in Slovakia on Tuesday evening to do as much as possible to guarantee a favourable route through the serpentine play-off process.
But there is an onus on the Football Association of Ireland, too: they have in their colours one of the good news stories of Irish sport.
They need to tell it far and wide.
Only three years ago, Irish soccer was one of the sickest brands in European sport. Prospects for a brighter future were virtually nil, and even the wildest optimist within the FAI couldn’t have seen beyond the mountain of debt in search of sunnier days.
But they have arrived. The men’s team under Stephen Kenny have steadied themselves and become more familiar with the manager’s methods.
There is no representation of Irish sport more popular, but their female counterparts bring a tale rich in sporting improvement but also one that has a powerful social resonance.
Their story speaks to some of the most sensitive issues of the day, and their collective experience is one that has registered with the Irish public. This goes way beyond attracting thousands to Tallaght Stadium, and becoming hung up on the non-arrivals last Thursday night is to miss the point.
Of course Vera Pauw wants her team playing in front of a packed stadium, but this is a new side as far as broad public awareness goes, drawing support from far beyond established demographics.
So expecting exactly the same sort of behaviour is unrealistic. That said, doing as much as possible to ensure those who purchase tickets go on to use them for future matches, including any play-off fixture in the weeks ahead, is an obvious issue.
And this comes back to maximising the power of this bracing new force in Irish soccer. They are appealing to fans beyond the traditional communities, which opens up many opportunities but also makes different demands of the FAI.
So far, they have shown that they are up to the job of meeting them. The media was full of interviews with players in the lead-up to the Finland game, and that contributed to a steady build-up in expectation in the days before last Thursday’s cliff-hanger.
This is about more than the papers being satisfied with access, though. It’s about a new force emerging in Irish sport with the confidence to talk about itself, and with the wit to understand that its popularity is sourced, to an important extent, among families.
That is why seeing the players and their management spend so long acknowledge the crowd after the final whistle against the Finns was encouraging.
Autographs were signed. Selfies were granted.
This a group that gets it. They know these are rare times for Irish women’s soccer, just as they recognise the value of their tightening relationship with an expanding fan-base.
And at root, they know that everything hinges on results. Keep winning and the turnstiles keep clicking.
Their job is not to sell the story of the team, but their value to the FAI, in terms of commercial appeal and reputational recovery, is another part of this unfolding drama.
What the marketers make of it all is not the concern of Pauw and Katie McCabe and all the rest of those involved in this invigorating side, but harnessing the forces unleashed by an emerging team will surely be a priority for the FAI. But doing whatever is necessary to assist Pauw and her players is the base-line requirement. That is the surest way of sustaining the improvements that have brought them to this point.
It’s all a long way removed from the scandalous way the women’s side was treated under the awful old regime, to the point that comparisons with those days, and the press conference called by a generation of players that had had enough, are now in the realm of historical curiosities.
Imagine, that’s how things used to be, we’ll soon marvel. The trite thing to say in the days ahead is that no matter what happens, there can be no regression to those days.
Of course it can’t happen, but it won’t, either, because how this team, how their sport, and how women’s sport are treated has changed enormously, even in the five years since that fateful protest.
The days of protest are for history now. Standards have changed.
Expectations have rocketed – on and off the field.
Three years ago, Irish soccer was one of the sickest brands in European sport