VERA PAUW INSISTS the Tyler Toland fallout is “a completely different issue” as she refutes allegations of misconduct made against her in a recent NWSL/NWSLPA report.

The report, released on Wednesday night, alleges the current Republic of Ireland women’s manager made comments regarding players’ weight and attempted to influence their eating habits during her time as manager of Houston Dash in 2018.

Toland, who is now at Spanish club Levante, remains estranged from the Ireland camp having last featured in November 2019. A highly-publicised row followed, including an over-and-back between Pauw and the player’s father, Maurice Toland, which played out through the media.

Asked at a press conference yesterday if this was reflected upon in any meetings with the FAI this week, Pauw said:

“No, because that is a completely different issue. There is a player of 16 years old who was not good enough to be on the pitch and a father who was reacting and thinking I had something against her.

“It is a completely different story, nothing to do with it. It was the father who made it that.”

Pauw stresses that she has no regrets over her treatment of Toland “because I didn’t treat her wrongly”.

In May 2021, Maurice Toland claimed that Pauw made comments about the size of his daughter’s legs.

“Vera told Tyler that she looked ‘too leggy’, that her legs had got 10cm bigger since she moved to City and suggested that she would pick up an ACL injury ‘by the second week in November’ if she maintained the training she was doing,” Toland said in an interview published on The42 and elsewhere.

Pauw appeared unaware of that allegation when it was brought up yesterday. “What? The size of her legs, what was wrong with the size of her legs?” the Dutch coach asked, before the above was quoted back to her. 

“Oh wait, that is something else, right,” she responded. “That is nothing to do with the size of her legs. I said to her, ‘Are you on a weight-lifting programme?’ and she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘I am so worried that you will pick up an ACL [injury] here, because there are so many players jumping from two times training a week to seven times training a week with weightlifting programmes that happen to get ACL injuries.’ That is what I said.

“Women footballers should not be doing weight-lifting and I will keep saying it until people start to realise that and open their eyes.”

Toland on the ball for Ireland in 2019. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO

With her approaches to conditioning and diet in the spotlight, Pauw says that her management style and method is the same now as back in ’18 at Houston Dash.

“There is no difference. Also, my approach is not different and my attitude is not different.

“If you know me now, enthusiasm is the first thing. We just go for it; let’s go for the impossible, structure it and, in that, no compromise. Weightlifting, just don’t do it. I don’t know if they [Irish players] have done it, but I don’t think so because we had hardly any injuries, so I don’t think so. Otherwise we would have gotten injuries.”

She echoed her belief that is not misconduct or wrongdoing, rather management style and personal preference. “I would say that it is the task of the coach.”

She stressed that these misconduct allegations, along with the fallout from the dressing room chants after October’s historic World Cup play-off win over Scotland at Hampden Park, do not overshadow the achievement of qualification for a first-ever major tournament.

“Because I don’t feel any guilt in this, I don’t feel it has anything to do with that fantastic performance that we have done with Ireland,” Pauw concluded.

“We made the impossible possible, so I don’t want to take that away from the players. It’s their performances, their magic year. It’s a magic year for women’s football in Ireland. And this is completely separate. This is going back to 2018. It has nothing to do with those fantastic tigers of Ireland, really nothing to do with them.

“So I hope that everybody realises that.”