Former Ireland manager Vera Pau has claimed the FAI director undermined her authority before and during the World Cup, reports RTE.
Following a board meeting on Tuesday evening, Pau was informed that her contract with the FAI would not be renewed.
Players, staff and Pau were asked to assess the World Cup.
Speaking exclusively to RTÉ, Pao said she had turned down two job offers, believing she would remain Ireland manager.
“That review was done by the technical director,” said Pauw. “He’s not trained to make reviews and he was part of the process, so the assignment on the technical director is something that…to do a review, immediately starting, while still in camp after the Nigeria game, is something you cannot reflect. The evaluation has not been done, and he started with my assistant. First my assistant, then the communications manager, and I came in as the third person,” reports RTE.
“I felt immediately that my assistant had set the benchmark with things that were absolutely ridiculous. For example he said there was no communication, we did not discuss things. Every morning we had a staff meeting and every single detail of my task was discussed, from the setup of the training sessions to the game plan, the strategies,” reports RTE.
She accused FAI management of undermining her role as manager by talking to staff members and players about their role in the team before and after the tournament in Australia.
She accused the FAI executive, led by chief executive Jonathan Hill, of withdrawing a promised contract offer, claiming he had been told a new deal would be offered before the team flew to Australia ahead of the tournament.
“Now all the places are occupied, and I have said no to two offers – one was better than the other but I’ve said no because I was with Ireland and I would keep going. The management could have said, ‘listen we know what’s going on, we heard the background, in December we have decided that this we know, Vera, we back her, there’s no differences so we just go on because we know it is not true’,” she said, reports RTE.
RTÉ has contacted the FAI for a response but had not received one at the time of publication.
On being offered roles elsewhere, Pauw said: “I’ve had two offers in the process that I stopped because I was waiting for the contract. The FAI did not have social behaviour to at least take a month’s notice to tell me, because that is normal HR activity isn’t it? To give your employer the time to find something. Now all the places are occupied, and I have said no to two offers – one was better than the other but I’ve said no because I was with Ireland and I would keep going. But after it was known [she would not be staying on], within a day I have been called by AFC [Asian Football Confederation] because they are so astonished about the development of Ireland that they wanted me to teach a course in Bangkok to their tutors of Pro License and A License and to explain how we did it, what steps, what methods and so on,” reports RTE.
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