Gleeson: Irish squad in full support of former players

Republic of Ireland manager Eileen Gleeson has said that the entire squad offers its full support to those players who shared their experiences for the joint RTÉ/Sunday Independent investigation into alleged unwanted or inappropriate sexual advances from FAI coaches in the 1990s.

Speaking ahead of her side’s Euro 2025 qualifier against England at Carrow Road on Friday, Gleeson said that they had discussed the RTÉ documentary ‘Girls In Green’ in camp ahead of the game and said that it was a difficult period for everyone.

“In terms of it being a difficult week for football, it’s a difficult week for women and girls as well in football,” she told RTÉ Sport’s Tony O’Donoghue.

“For me personally, it was awful to watch and to listen to the girls recount their experience.

“From me, from the girls, we offer our full support and we fully support the investigation and solidarity to the women for coming forward and sharing their experiences.

“Of course we discussed it with the team, it was very important I think to do that. (We) gave them the information that the programme was coming and of course the girls would have watched the programme and then we discussed it the next day.

“The (interim) CEO (David Courell) and of course Aoife Rafferty (people & culture director) came in and discussed openly the safeguarding and support lines and ways to report if you needed to – having that transparency.

“Really important on a personal level, people are deeply affected by this and rightly so. It’s important that this can trigger other emotions within the players. We are in a camp at the same time so it’s trying to manage that while acknowledging that and making sure that everyone feels supported.”

Last Sunday’s documentary aired on the same day Ireland’s camp for the game began while there were also some criticisms of the FAI for announcing Heimir Hallgrimsson as the new men’s senior team manager just two days before the women’s clash with England.

For Gleeson, she said it was vitally important that they didn’t allow off-field events to impact their preparations for the game as they chase their first points in Group 3 after four previous losses.

“Obviously we’ve had to deal with the documentary dropping in on the day we come into camp and it’s super important those players’ messages are heard and the women in it we support.

“The timing offers another challenge for us coming into the camp, then the men, so what we have to do is close off the noise because we can lose focus if we listen to all the noise.

“We tried to keep it remaining focussed solely on the games coming.”

Gleeson will be without the suspended Katie McCabe for the clash with the current Euro holders, but she is confident that they have the squad there to adapt.

“We’d known Katie was gone since that yellow card was produced so it’s not anything new at this point,” said Gleeson.

“Unfortunately we had the late injury of Kyra (Carusa) who is a real loss and a couple of other players but we’ve also got Denise (O’Sullivan) back, we’ve got (Niamh) Fahey back as well….we have to use the squad to its maximum.”

Watch England v Republic of Ireland in Women’s Euro 2025 qualifying on Friday from 7.35pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to live commentary on 2fm’s Game On

Watch Spain v England in the Euro 2024 final on Sunday from 7pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app