A terrible week for women in Irish football is instantly followed by some unforgettable days. I hope the players that came before the current Republic of Ireland team were able to enjoy the scenes at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
After beating France 3-1, we now need the Government to support our national side.
The sky is still the limit. Unlike the men, the women can live with giants of world football, like Spain and France. There are two choices. We can waste this moment or we can grow something sustainable.
The FAI must continue to take responsibility for what happened to players under their care in the 1990s, as much as they should avoid taking credit for Ireland’s victory on Tuesday evening.
Here’s why.
Imagine the commitment required to have a baby girl last summer, build your family home near Moycullen, run the New York marathon in November and return to semi-professional football with Galway United.
That all happened before Julie-Ann Russell resumed her career at Microsoft following maternity leave.
Then she scored two goals for Ireland in crucial Euro 2025 qualifiers against England and France. She also provided the assist for Denise O’Sullivan’s lethal finish.
More on Denise below.
Julie-Ann covered the 26.2 miles from Staten Island into Williamsburg, through the Bronx and along Central Park in three hours 48 minutes. No seconds were required. Rosie, her then five month old, was at the finish line in midtown Manhattan.
Russell might never become a professional footballer but she possesses the mentality of an elite athlete. See how she manages to balance motherhood, a career and international football.
Julie-Ann’s spectacular return to the Ireland camp after a four-year absence is down to a handful of people, mainly herself, her family and Galway United. While very little assistance comes from the structures employed by our association, huge credit goes to Eileen Gleeson for realising that a 60-cap veteran could, at age 33, do a better job than Harry Kane when it comes to the high press.
She missed a few chances before curling Ireland’s second goal into the French net. She stuck at it. She always does. She now has 62 caps and six goals for her country. The fourth and fifth goals were separated by 10 years.
What she has achieved, largely by herself, should be enough to make Julie-Ann Russell a household name that inspires the coming generation. Or she might persuade them to hedge their bets.
Our generation – the 30-somethings – turned away from professionalism because we had to focus on carving out a career, with our education. If we waited for the FAI to catch up, we’d still be twiddling our thumbs.
The women’s game in Ireland is at a crossroads. The newly branded FAI knows what needs to happen, but change is being implemented at a glacial pace.
Gleeson admitted recently that the weekly gathering of home-based players in Abbotstown, brought in by former Ireland manager Colin Bell and carried on by Vera Pauw, had been abandoned. Plans are afoot to introduce under-23 camps, where home-based players, including Julie-Ann, could be exposed to the coaching of Ireland assistant manager Colin Healy and conditioning expert Ivi Casagrande.
What are the FAI waiting for? Get a 12-week training block in place before the October playoffs. On Monday, the Ireland under-19s drew with Spain at the Euros in Lithuania. We must ready these girls for the next step.
The senior team beat France thanks to a Denise O’Sullivan performance that should have the top three Super League clubs – Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City – offering her a deal. They will have seen Denise troubling the best English midfielders at Carrow Road last Friday. With Kim Little coming to the end at Arsenal, Denise could be a plug-in replacement.
Either way, and against all odds, her club career in the US has been inspirational.
Again, and again, we hear the right noises from Abbotstown. We know they know what needs to be done. It is established that sustained progress can only happen when soccer becomes part of the national curriculum.
Will the FAI sit in a room with Norma Foley, the Minister for Education, to outline what has been happening in Sweden and the Netherlands for over a decade?
Progress in women’s football can happen at a rapid pace. The heavy lifting has been done by Katie McCabe, Denise and Julie-Ann. The World Cup in Australia happened 12 months ago. Build a centre of excellence, separate from the men. Do it now.
Approach private girls’ boarding schools that show interest. Hand out scholarships. Copy how rugby leaped from amateur to professional in the early 2000s.
It can go one of two ways: replicate what the old FAI did by mangling the aftermath of Italia ‘90 or put into practice what the new FAI are already preaching.
We waited eight months – Heimir could have waited a week
The FAI had their reasons for overshadowing England versus Ireland in the Nations League last Friday by unveiling Heimir Hallgrímsson as the men’s manager on Thursday.
I thought it was tone deaf public relations. And that’s being generous.
After former Irish players were brave enough to talk about alleged sexual abuse by male coaches in the 1990s, the people running our game made the decision to drown out the message conveyed so eloquently by Olivia O’Toole, Bridget McDonald and many more brave women.
Then and now, the FAI should protect its players. Not silence them. The sentiments conveyed by the ex-internationals should have been the only sound echoing through the Aviva Stadium last week. Instead, their words got lost in the ether. The search for a men’s manager took eight months. Heimir could have waited until yesterday.
[ Kevin Kilbane: Heimir Hallgrímsson deserved a better introduction to the publicOpens in new window ]
Currently, 69 females and 230 males are doing Uefa licencing courses through the FAI. That’s following an applaudable drive to provide women-only courses but of the 11 Premier Division clubs, there is one female head coach in Laura Heffernan at DLR Waves.
When a female player makes a complaint about a male coach, be it to the FAI or the GAA, an independent body should immediately take over the investigation.
Look at the journalism produced by Marie Crowe and Mark Tighe. When a complaint was made back in the 1990s, the LFAI asked the female players if something happened, the girls said no, and that was the end of the issue. The governing bodies are invested in the coaches they produce. Understandably so.
But bullying and abuse will always occur when the watchdogs are not constantly empowered to keep tabs on the coach/player dynamic.
A male coach with all the credentials to bring success to a female football team can cross the line at some point during their reign, a random team night out or end of year celebrations. It still happens, all too often. It must be consistently monitored. Otherwise, we are leaving it up to the victim and relying on each sports governing body to inform the relevant bodies about Stand Down Orders.