Pauw: We are at a disadvantage for being better

IRELAND manager Vera Pauw says that it feels like Ireland are being punished for having one of the best records of the teams who will contest the forthcoming World Cup play-offs.

Ireland qualified as one of the best group runners-up in the qualification campaign, meaning they have been given a bye into the second round.

However, they have been drawn away from home and will not discover the identity of their opponents until Scotland face Austria on Thursday night, less than five days before the play-off.

‘The seeded teams are at a disadvantage, this is how we feel,’ Pauw (right) said.

‘We feel we have been given a disadvantage for being better. Also revenue-wise, we are missing out on revenue.’

The convoluted manner in which UEFA and FIFA have devised the play-off system for next year’s World Cup has been roundly criticised and it has been suggested that it would never happen in the men’s game.

‘Look, we will deal with it,’ Pauw insisted. ‘We take it game by game, we will just see whoever is next. But I don’t think they will ever do this again.

‘You need to ask UEFA why they came up with this system. But I am sure this will never happen again. Every single country is complaining about it – I am not the only one.’

WHERE next for Vera Pauw and the Republic of Ireland women’s national team? And we’re not talking about their forthcoming World Cup play-off against the winners of Scotland and Austria on October 8, but rather the venue for the next squad announcement.

Last month, Pauw faced the cameras in Sky’s HQ in Baggot Street; on Friday it was another sponsor, Cadbury, who milked a cup and a half of the media spotlight at their Coolock centre of operations.

Pauw is certainly delivering for the FAI, and those sponsors who sensed a rising tide under the Dutchwoman and her tigers have duly bought in.

Should Pauw plot a route to the World Cup finals in Australia and New Zealand next summer, those companies already on board will fly high to the Antipodes, while others will scramble for a place on the coveted advertising backdrops. The price will have gone up by then, too.

It’s a marked contrast to the men’s senior team, always the commercial engine that drives the FAI.

Two years after the appointment of Jonathan Hill as CEO, there is no primary sponsor for the Ireland senior team. There are lots of lesser deals but no biggie. Not like Opel, Eircom or Three in the past.

Hill deserves kudos for clinching the Sky link-up and is doing his damnedest to put a name on the shirts, and everywhere else, with the men’s senior team.

If the initial asking price of around €2.5million per year seemed excessive, Hill has lowered the bar, but no one is nibbling.

The inconsistent performances of the senior team haven’t helped, while Stephen Kenny doesn’t command the marketability of previous Ireland managers, or even assistants, such as Roy Keane.

Should Pauw secure a ticket for her tigers Down Under, there won’t be a pavilion big enough for her next briefing, and the WNT sponsors will be falling over themselves with glee.