The legal proceedings Eileen Gleeson is taking against the Football Association of Ireland were always likely to put Carla Ward in an awkward enough position once asked to comment on them.
Gleeson, after all, is her predecessor in the role as head coach of the Republic of Ireland women’s team and has made accusations of gender discrimination against an association that is Ward’s current employer. And in Gleeson’s view, Ward should be earning the same as men’s coach Heimir Hallgrímsson.
The safest route might have been to offer a “no comment” when she spoke to the media in Abbotstown on Monday, using the fact that it is now a legal matter as a shield, but “you know me by now, I answer anything that comes my way”, as Ward said herself.
She did too, and while she tried to steer an even course between the two parties in the dispute, she didn’t shy away from admitting that she hasn’t found everything to her liking since she took on the job in January.
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“Am I happy? Yes. Am I happy with everything? No. Things can always be better.”
Gleeson has alleged there was a disparity between the resources the FAI put towards the men’s and women’s set-ups, citing examples such as security, medical support, travel and accommodation. Does Ward feel any or all of those areas still need to improve?
“You can always improve, right? Every environment can improve. When I came in, I knew there was work to be done. My whole career I’ve been at places where I’ve had to bang down doors and kick down doors – and I can be quite annoying because I constantly ask for more and try to get better standards, better facilities, better everything for players. And I’ll continue to do so.”
“So yes, of course there are challenges, but we are consistently working towards improving everything we do. David [Courell, CEO of the FAI] has been receptive to things that I’ve gone to him with. There’s been areas that I think we need to improve and there are constant conversations about them.”
Had she been offered certain assurances on taking the job that have not been fulfilled?
“Look, that happens in every walk of life. Whether you’re in a relationship or whether you’re in a job. I think there are always going to be things that pop up that you maybe don’t expect, but it’s how you deal with them – and I deal with them with conversations, and I will continue to do so to make us better.”
Should resources be equally spread between the Irish men’s and women’s teams?
“Yes.”
Are they?
After a long pause, Ward said: “I think it depends on what we call resources. There are conversations on what the realities are, where we’re at and what is being spent on what. This has been going on for a few months now, but those conversations have been paused for this camp because it’s important that we focus on Belgium.”
On the issue of whether managers of women’s teams should be paid the same as those in charge of men’s, Ward drew a sharp distinction between the international and club games.
“In international football, yeah, you could argue that that’s something that should be considered. But in club football, it’s a completely different kettle of fish from a commercial point of view. But I couldn’t tell you what the male manager [Hallgrímsson] is on. I don’t think he’d tell me if I asked him,” she laughed.
Is Gleeson’s legal case helpful in terms of improving the conditions Ward and her players work under?
“I don’t know if helpful is the right word. I think Eileen’s obviously brought to attention things that she’s encountered. I can only bring forward what I encounter. Are there some similarities? Yes. Are there certain things that we’re still working through? Yes. And they [the FAI] have been receptive to trying to create change in the areas that we need to.”
“I’m in constant contact with anybody and everybody over the past few months, including Eileen, including the players, including the board, and I understand everybody’s side of it. But this week is about Belgium.”
“I would say that since I’ve come into the job, with everything that’s going on around the FAI, the outside noise, 80 per cent of it hasn’t been about football. And football is what we’re paid for, what we need to be judged on. I’m going to be judged on results. So the quicker we can talk about football and focus on football again, the better.”
