Shadow of Abuse Scandal Hangs Over a World Cup Soccer Team

For the next few months at least, Pauw, who is Dutch, and Farrelly, who ended her seven-year absence from soccer last month in returning to the N.W.S.L. and made her debut for Ireland on Saturday, are expected to collaborate as Ireland approaches the World Cup this summer in Australia and New Zealand.

In that debut in Austin, a 2-0 defeat to the four-time world champion United States, Farrelly sought to bring a calming presence while starting in Ireland’s midfield after only two training sessions. She did not play in a second tuneup match with the Americans, a 1-0 loss Tuesday in St. Louis, as Pauw said she withheld her from the starting lineup for “injury prevention” because she had not played much with her club yet this year.

Pauw said that she had spoken to Farrelly before she joined the Irish team and had tried to make her feel comfortable. They share a desire to perform on soccer’s grandest stage but also a horrible commonality. Last year, Pauw said that she had been raped by a Dutch soccer official when she was a player and that she had also been sexually assaulted by two other men.

For 35 years, she kept the abuse private, Pauw said in a statement last July, allowing the memories “to control my life, to fill me with daily pain and anguish.”

In a broad sense, the Pauw-Farrelly union can be viewed as a dispiriting sign of how widespread accusations of impropriety are in women’s soccer.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/11/sports/soccer/ireland-soccer-abuse.html