Ireland Women’s Football Team To Meet With Mediator This Evening

James Fenton

The Irish Women’s football team has agreed to sit down with a mediator in a bid to sort out its dispute with the Football Association of Ireland.

Yesterday, the team shocked the nation by calling a press conference to outline some alleged shoddy treatment at the hands of the FAI.

Among their grievances were some players having to use paid holidays from their full-time jobs in order to represent their country, failure to cover loss of wages and having to change out of tracksuits in airport toilets in order to share them with underage teams.

The FAI swiftly hit back with a statement denying the claims.

SIPTU has today released a statement which says that members of the team will sit down with the Professional Footballers’ Association of Ireland and a mediator in order to try and resolve the dispute.

In a statement, PFA Ireland Player Executive, Ollie Cahill, spoke of the support team has received since the revelations were made public:

“The players have not taken this decision lightly. The players wish to make clear that they simply want the FAI to respect their right to choose their own representatives and have all the outstanding issues which are affecting their ability to achieve their maximum potential for their country resolved in a swift, amicable and professional manner.”

“The players would also like to thank the public and the global football community for the overwhelming level of support they have received in the past 24 hours. Messages of support have come in to the team from around the world and these have been greatly appreciated by the players.”

SIPTU Services Division Organiser, Ethel Buckley, added:

“Members of the team and their PFA Ireland and SIPTU representatives will attend a meeting with a mediator to discuss the issues in this dispute, this evening at 6.00 p.m. It is our understanding that representatives of the FAI will also be meeting with the mediator.

“The players and their representatives are encouraged by a communication sent to team members today by the FAI inviting them to attend the mediation process along with their representatives.”

Meanwhile, FAI chief John Delaney has been today elected onto European football governing body UEFA’s executive committee.

The Women’s national team meeting is due to take place this evening at 6pm.