{"id":396261,"date":"2026-04-13T13:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/396261\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T13:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T13:17:08","slug":"mens-football-could-do-with-more-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/396261\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Men&#8217;s football could do with more women&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ireland manager Carla Ward believes the men\u2019s game could benefit from other females being allowed to follow the trail set by  <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/sport\/soccer\/arid-41825996.html\">new Union Berlin boss Marie-Louise Eta.<\/a>\n        <\/p>\n<p>The Bundesliga became the first club across the top five European leagues to appoint a female manager when they appointed Eta until the end of the season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> Ward is in Gdansk preparing Ireland for the first of back-to-back World Cup qualifiers against Poland over five days but revealed she\u2019s undertaken a project on the paucity of females in the men\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> As it happens, she had already set up a meeting with the former Champions League winner, who was already a ground-breaker by taking on the assistant role as Union in 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievably important,\u201d said former Aston Villa and Birmingham City chief Ward at the 41,000-capacity Polsat Plus Arena, the scene of Ireland\u2019s 4-0 hiding by Spain at the 2012 men\u2019s Euros.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cI\u2019m doing a Fifa independent study on the lack of females in the women\u2019s game so will be talking to Marie-Louise next week. That\u2019s perfect timing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ward went on to proffer an opinion on the respective traits held by coaches of the opposite gender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cI say it a lot that the men\u2019s game is very different to women\u2019s in terms of how it&#8217;s coached,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cThe level of maturity in the men\u2019s game goes back a lot longer and there\u2019s far more participation in the male game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cUs women, and I hope that I\u2019m not speaking out of turn here, but we want to know the answer to everything, the details and the why behind it. I think lads are less so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cFemale coaches are arguably more process and detail driven. I think the men\u2019s game could do with more women, let\u2019s put it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Meanwhile, Ruesha Littlejohn is the only confirmed absentee from Ireland\u2019s matchday squad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> The Crystal Palace veteran is struggling with her ongoing Achilles problem, forcing her out of the pre-match training session, but the injury is expected to clear up for her to be available for Saturday\u2019s rematch at Lansdowne Road (3pm).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> Poland come into the match with one point more than Ireland\u2019s zero after they each faced top seeds Netherlands and France in last month\u2019s opening double-header.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> Ireland are guaranteed entry into the playoffs for next year\u2019s World Cup in Brazil but nudging the Poles for third would pave an easier route through the two-tie playoffs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> Denise O\u2019Sullivan will start in midfield after recovering from the knee injury which forced her to be substituted in the 2-1 defeat against the French. Lucy Quinn stepped into her place for the visit to the Dutch, which also resulted in a 2-1 loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cWhen Denise ticks, we as a team tick,\u201d stressed Ward about the Corkwoman, who has returned to action for her new club, Liverpool, in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cI\u2019ve talked a lot about her importance from day one. She\u2019s a top professional and player. Everybody feels it when Denise is not around. She\u2019s hugely important and it\u2019s great to have her back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">O\u2019Sullivan travelled as a spectator to Utrecht, observing from a distance the improvements essential for Ireland to prosper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cI was really proud of the girls,\u201d the playmaker surmised.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cObviously sitting in the stand was really hard because I love playing for my country. I missed it but the girls were excellent. They defended very well and were organised. They did really well in possession and attack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"> \u201cThe next step is turning those performances into points.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Ireland women\u2019s squad<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Goalkeepers:\u00a0Courtney Brosnan (Everton FC), Sophie Whitehouse (Charlton Athletic), Grace Moloney (Sunderland).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Defenders:\u00a0Katie McCabe (Arsenal FC), Anna Patten (Aston Villa FC), Caitlin Hayes (Brighton &amp; Hove Albion), Aoife Mannion (Newcastle United), Maria Reynolds (Shamrock Rovers), Chloe Mustaki (Nottingham Forest).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Midfielders:\u00a0Denise O&#8217;Sullivan (Liverpool), Tyler Toland (Durham), Megan Connolly (Lazio), Marissa Sheva (Sunderland), Lucy Quinn (Birmingham City), Ruesha Littlejohn (Crystal Palace), Jess Ziu (West Ham United),\u00a0Aoibheann Clancy (Shelbourne) and Jamie Finn (Sunderland).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Forwards:\u00a0Saoirse Noonan (Celtic FC), Abbie Larkin (Crystal Palace), Leanne Kiernan (Nottingham Forest &#8211; loan), Emily Murphy (Newcastle United), Kyra Carusa (Kansas City Current &#8211; loan), Amber Barrett (Strasbourg).<\/p>\n<p class=\"contextmenu caption\">Women\u2019s World Cup qualifiers<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Tuesday, April 14\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Poland v Ireland<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Gdansk Stadium (KO 5pm Irish time)<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Saturday April 18\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ireland vs. Poland<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Aviva Stadium (KO 3pm),<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland manager Carla Ward believes the men\u2019s game could benefit from other females being allowed to follow the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43,18998],"class_list":["post-396261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}