Ireland head coach Vera Pauw addressed the media Friday in Austin ahead of her team’s friendly against the USWNT. It was Pauw’s first appearance in front of American reporters since the release of the joint investigation report into misconduct across the NWSL, conducted by the league and the NWSL Players Association. In that report, released on Dec. 14 last year, Pauw was found by the investigation team to have “shamed players for their weight and attempted to exert excessive control over their eating habits” during her single season with the Houston Dash in 2018.
Pauw vigorously rebutted the content of the investigation report, as well as its method.
“This moment, I was not looking forward (to it), but it’s the very best thing that we can do for preparation for the World Cup,” Pauw said of the team’s friendlies. “These allegations in the report are absolutely ridiculous and false. There is no truth in it, and I know I find a lot of safety in the truth.”
She also expressed her emotions over being mentioned in the joint investigation report.
“Can you imagine what it does to a person? Can you feel what that does to a person? … I have been raped. I have been sexually assaulted,” she said. “I have perceived power abuse, intimidation, isolation, everything,…
