Vera Pauw, the Republic of Ireland Women’s manager, says a “shadow” has been cast over their qualification for the 2023 World Cup after players were filmed singing a song referencing the IRA.
Vera Pauw’s side qualified for the tournament for the first time in their history following a 1-0 win over Scotland at Hampden Park on Tuesday night, after which footage showed the players singing the offensive song in the dressing room.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Pauw – who is Dutch – said she was not in the dressing room at the time and would not have recognised the song if she was, but still took full responsibility for the incident.
“I’ve been talking to the players and they are devastated,” said Pauw, who took charge of the Republic of Ireland in 2019. “I’ve been talking with the CEO and the president.
“For me, it’s very important that respect is the first thing that we emit and, as soon as we do not emit respect, we have a problem.
“What we did was wrong because of the history. We know it.
“I must admit that if I had been in the dressing room I would not have recognised it because that is the downside of having a foreign coach. I would not have been able to do anything about it.
“But that doesn’t mean that I do not have responsibilities. I take full responsibility for what happened and we will address it further.”
Pauw admitted the incident “does put a shadow” over the Republic of Ireland’s achievement of reaching their first Women’s World Cup, adding that players would “need to accept” any punishments that are handed down, including potential international bans.
“Within the squad, I do not take anything that is not respectful and we never have a problem with that,” said Pauw. “I do not take any nonsense to the referee or an opponent either.
“This is the other extreme. We have done a thing that hurt people. It’s no excuse that we did not mean to hurt anyone, it’s not an excuse that we were celebrating. Our key value is that we respect people so I truly apologise.
“Our way of dealing with our values is that our freedoms stop when we enter the freedoms of somebody else and that is what happened. We have hurt people and it doesn’t matter if we didn’t intend it or not – we should have known better.
“The players are truly hurt by the fact they hurt others. I have spoken with the player who put it on social media. She’s devastated, she’s crying in her room because she hurt people and she never meant it.
“I would like, on behalf of all the players, my staff, myself, to apologise for what has happened. Let’s treat it as an education of our responsibilities.
“It’s not because it got put on social media because, if it hadn’t been put on social media, it’s still wrong. We shouldn’t have done it and we will never do it again.”
Mustaki: The players are embarrassed
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Chloe Mustaki, who was an unused substitute against Scotland, said the entire squad felt “embarrassed” over the incident.
“We’re all really sorry in Dublin. It was a massive lapse in judgment on our end,” she said.
“There was a lot going on when the final whistle went but we absolutely didn’t mean to cause any hurt and we do absolutely apologise for that.
“We’re quite embarrassed. There was quite a lot going on in the changing room in such a major moment and there were lots of different songs being put on left, right and centre so we’re incredibly embarrassed at this moment in time.
“We didn’t mean any hurt on our end so we do really apologise for that.”
But Mustaki rejected the idea that education programmes were needed, saying: “I don’t really think so.
“We need to learn in these moments to be better and to do better. We’ve all been brought up knowing about Irish history so we just need to be better in moments like this and we recognise that absolutely on our end.”
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