Irish women fined for singing IRA song in historic World Cup qualifiers

Irish soccer players were fined 20,000 euros after the sing an IRA song in the locker room. They did so after qualifying for the world championship for the first time in history under national coach Vera Pauw at the expense of Scotland.

Pauw then immediately took responsibility, even though she herself did not participate in the singing. “From the bottom of our hearts, we apologize to everyone who was offended.”

Today, two months later, UEFA has fined the Irish federation for “breaching basic rules of decent behaviour”. Political expressions are banned in international football, as is the case at this men’s World Cup Serbia and Croatia penalized by FIFA and allowed, among others, Virgil van Dijk do not wear the OneLove band.

Ireland will take part in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand from July anyway. Pauw’s team is placed in Group B with Australia, Nigeria and Canada.

The Netherlands, losing finalists at the previous World Cup, are in Group E with world champions USA and Vietnam. The third opponent will not be known until February. This comes from the play-offs between Portugal, Cameroon and Thailand.