Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has been accused of criticising players over their weight in a report by the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and its Players Association following a joint 14-month investigation into allegations of abuse and misconduct towards NWSL players.
The report alleged that Pauw, who managed NWSL club Houston Dash for a year up until September 2018, “shamed players for their weight and attempted to exert excessive control over their eating habits”, citing players who described her as a “power freak”.
As a result of the report’s findings, Houston Dash issued a statement apologising to players “present and former, who were subject to misconduct by James Clarkson and 2018 head coach, Vera Pauw”.
One Dash player described the Dutch woman as having “outbursts” of “emotional yelling” in which she would “get up in a frenzy”, others alleged that she wanted to exert control over “every aspect of [their] lives”.
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Pauw, according to the report, “appeared to want to control and micromanage players’ diets and exercise regimens even when her weight loss directives were inconsistent with sports medicine best practices . . . players reported that Pauw’s comments affected a teammate struggling with an eating disorder”.
The report says that Pauw appeared for an interview with the investigative team, but refused to cooperate, instead providing “a written denial of what she suspected were the allegations against her”.
She “acknowledged that a [Houston] player had raised concerns . . . that Pauw’s mistreatment had caused a teammate’s eating disorder, but Pauw denied any role and stated that the reporting player should have “taken responsibility as an adult” by looking out for her teammate sooner”.
The Football Association of Ireland responded to the allegations against Pauw in the report by saying that neither they nor “Vera had sight of this report before it was published and we note that Vera has already expressed her views to the authors of the report. The FAI continues to support Vera and her team as they prepare for the upcoming World Cup in 2023.”
