After a 123-year wait, the Republic of Ireland senior women’s team will play international football at the Aviva Stadium.
Prime time viewing will have to wait, however, as Northern Ireland only agreed to a 1pm kick-off on Saturday, September 23rd.
The inaugural Uefa Nations League tie was pushed from the Friday to facilitate families and avoid a clash with the men’s League of Ireland as there are three matches in Dublin that night. It also suits Katie McCabe’s side to play this historic match at lunchtime as they fly to Hungry the same night ahead of their second game in Group B1 the following Tuesday.
The FAI attempted to move from Tallaght stadium (capacity 8,000) to the Aviva for the World Cup warm-up against France on July 6th but they were denied by “scheduled pitch redevelopment work”.
The next challenge for the association is to fill all 51,700 seats. A family season ticket costs €240, which comes at just over €11 a ticket if two adults and two children attend every game this season. The bottom rung of the horseshoe venue holds 19,000, and it remains unclear if the entire ground will open for business.
“Football for women and girls has clearly moved a significant way forward in the last three years, much of it driven by the inspirational performances of Vera Pauw and the team but also on the back of our equal pay agreement in 2021 and the hard work of thousands of coaches and volunteers the length and breadth of the country who are inspiring women’s football to new highs,” said Jonathan Hill, the FAI chief executive. “We are all very excited that another glass ceiling has been removed.”
Equal pay was only achieved when the men’s captain Séamus Coleman agreed to slash their match appearance fee, which in turn ensured that the FAI avoided any extra outlay.
“It is fantastic to know that our players will get to play in such an iconic stadium,” said Pauw. “We have had outstanding support in recent years in Tallaght stadium – who we remain extremely grateful to – but we always said that if the right opportunity to play in the Aviva Stadium came along then we would look at it. This is that right opportunity and we want to have a record attendance to cheer the team on in their first game after the World Cup.”
The first ever international at the venue saw England beat Ireland 2-0 on March 17th, 1900
Meanwhile, St Patrick’s Athletic have formally replaced manager Tim Clancy with Jon Daly.
“We went through a thorough recruitment process,” said St Pat’s chairman Garrett Kelleher. “Jon has made a very positive impact on the team in recent weeks, winning three of his four matches in charge and we wish him luck in his new role as manager.”
