{"id":93965,"date":"2025-10-21T04:17:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/93965\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T04:17:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T04:17:14","slug":"carla-ward-in-constant-conversations-with-fai-about-support-for-irelands-womens-team-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/93965\/","title":{"rendered":"Carla Ward in \u2018constant conversations\u2019 with FAI about support for Ireland\u2019s women\u2019s team \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The legal proceedings Eileen Gleeson<\/a> is taking against the Football Association of Ireland<\/a> were always likely to put Carla Ward<\/a> in an awkward enough position once asked to comment on them. <\/p>\n

Gleeson, after all, is her predecessor in the role as head coach of the Republic of Ireland<\/a> women\u2019s team and has made accusations of gender discrimination against an association that is Ward\u2019s current employer<\/a>. And in Gleeson\u2019s view, Ward should be earning the same as men\u2019s coach Heimir Hallgr\u00edmsson. <\/p>\n

The safest route might have been to offer a \u201cno comment\u201d when she spoke to the media in Abbotstown on Monday, using the fact that it is now a legal matter as a shield, but \u201cyou know me by now, I answer anything that comes my way\u201d, as Ward said herself.<\/p>\n

She did too, and while she tried to steer an even course between the two parties in the dispute, she didn\u2019t shy away from admitting that she hasn\u2019t found everything to her liking since she took on the job in January. <\/p>\n

\u201cAm I happy? Yes. Am I happy with everything? No. Things can always be better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gleeson has alleged there was a disparity between the resources the FAI put towards the men\u2019s and women\u2019s set-ups<\/a>, citing examples such as security, medical support, travel and accommodation. Does Ward feel any or all of those areas still need to improve?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can always improve, right? Every environment can improve. When I came in, I knew there was work to be done. My whole career I\u2019ve been at places where I\u2019ve had to bang down doors and kick down doors \u2013 and I can be quite annoying because I constantly ask for more and try to get better standards, better facilities, better everything for players. And I\u2019ll continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo yes, of course there are challenges, but we are consistently working towards improving everything we do. David [Courell, CEO of the FAI] has been receptive to things that I\u2019ve gone to him with. There\u2019s been areas that I think we need to improve and there are constant conversations about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Republic of Ireland head coach Eileen Gleeson at Sunday’s FAI Cup final in Tallaght. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/INPHO <\/p>\n

Had she been offered certain assurances on taking the job that have not been fulfilled?<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, that happens in every walk of life. Whether you\u2019re in a relationship or whether you\u2019re in a job. I think there are always going to be things that pop up that you maybe don\u2019t expect, but it\u2019s how you deal with them \u2013 and I deal with them with conversations, and I will continue to do so to make us better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should resources be equally spread between the Irish men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Are they?<\/p>\n

After a long pause, Ward said: \u201cI think it depends on what we call resources. There are conversations on what the realities are, where we\u2019re at and what is being spent on what. This has been going on for a few months now, but those conversations have been paused for this camp because it\u2019s important that we focus on Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the issue of whether managers of women\u2019s teams should be paid the same as those in charge of men\u2019s, Ward drew a sharp distinction between the international and club games. <\/p>\n

\"CarlaCarla Ward tackled tough questions tactfully when talking to the media on Monday. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cIn international football, yeah, you could argue that that\u2019s something that should be considered. But in club football, it\u2019s a completely different kettle of fish from a commercial point of view. But I couldn\u2019t tell you what the male manager [Hallgr\u00edmsson] is on. I don\u2019t think he\u2019d tell me if I asked him,\u201d she laughed. <\/p>\n

Is Gleeson\u2019s legal case helpful in terms of improving the conditions Ward and her players work under? <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if helpful is the right word. I think Eileen\u2019s obviously brought to attention things that she\u2019s encountered. I can only bring forward what I encounter. Are there some similarities? Yes. Are there certain things that we\u2019re still working through? Yes. And they [the FAI] have been receptive to trying to create change in the areas that we need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in constant contact with anybody and everybody over the past few months, including Eileen, including the players, including the board, and I understand everybody\u2019s side of it. But this week is about Belgium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that since I\u2019ve come into the job, with everything that\u2019s going on around the FAI, the outside noise, 80 per cent of it hasn\u2019t been about football. And football is what we\u2019re paid for, what we need to be judged on. I\u2019m going to be judged on results. So the quicker we can talk about football and focus on football again, the better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The legal proceedings Eileen Gleeson is taking against the Football Association of Ireland were always likely to put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18999,16336,13446,61,60,59269,43,18998,59268],"class_list":["post-93965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-carla-ward","tag-eileen-gleeson","tag-football-association-of-ireland-fai","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-nations-league","tag-news","tag-republic-of-ireland-wnt","tag-women-in-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93965","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=93965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}