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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
Sport
Mark McCadden

Vera Pauw fears 'false' allegations will follow her for the rest of her life

Vera Pauw believes she will have to live with the allegations made against her by former Houston Dash players and staff members for the rest of her life.

The Ireland manager fears she will never be able to fully clear her name in the wake of another round of allegations made against her.

The Athletic carried a lengthy article this week, in which four unnamed former Houston Dash players and three ex-staff members were quoted.

Pauw, who was also interviewed for the piece, denied all allegations of misconduct.

READ MORE: Katie McCabe on the 'negative distraction' that has overshadowed Ireland's World Cup preparations

And speaking ahead of Ireland’s friendly against France on Thursday night, which takes place 24 hours before the squad’s departure to Australia for the World Cup, she again addressed the allegations.

“Go through the allegations and just put Guardiola or Louis van Gaal or Mourinho in that, you’d actually laugh about it because it's all about coaching,” she said.

“It’s all about coaching, it's not about anything else.

“I don't want to go into the details because it is nonsense. It’s not true. As I said before, there is great safety in the truth.

“That truth is with me and the people around me, the people who know me, the people who saw me working know that it is not true.

“There's not one single person who knows me for a long time who has put any question mark behind it. So that is my safety and that’s what I’m carrying with me.

“I need to have my full energy for these players.

“And many players came to me to support and to ask what crap or nonsense it was because they know me so differently - as well as from all the other teams that I've been coaching.

“I want to leave it with that. I will never win from a lie, that is clear now, whatever you do, you don't win from a lie.

“I have to live with it and carry it with me for the rest of my life, I’m afraid.”

Pauw was named last December in a NWSL report into alleged misconduct in the league.

The controversy appeared to have blown over, however, until The Athletic’s article on Monday.

“I was flabbergasted that this was coming back to me,” she said.

Pauw added: “I have spoken to the leading players and they all came individually to me and said they hold (have) my back.

“And that nobody… I have asked specifically if they have ever experienced anything, we are going to a World Cup, and they said no, never.

“And we are going to a World Cup. It is so fantastic.

“We lost a European Championship in Ukraine. And back then we were sitting in the dressing-room and we said to each other we are going to the World Cup.

“You have all followed that bond, it has been so close and this team deserves that all that focus is on the World Cup.

“We have worked so hard to get there. They do everything to be ready.

“And this distraction, the timing of this is wrong. And the allegations are false. That is all I want to say.”

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