Stats and strategy bring future of Irish women's football into sharp focus

15 Mar 2026, 07:30 by Emma Duffy · The42

Emma Duffy

AS NUMBERS WERE crunched and stats compiled on the Irish women’s football team this week, several stood out.

Squad depth – or lack thereof – and age profile have been a concern for quite some time, but they were laid bare in a tough start to 2027 World Cup qualifying.

Carla Ward’s side can take encouragement from narrow 2-1 defeats to France and Netherlands, though the bigger picture – and long-term future of Irish women’s football – is worrying.

A snapshot: of both Irish XIs, seven players are aged 30 or over. All but one are over 25. The average age is 29.

Perhaps most alarming is the fact that only five players have made debuts since the 2023 World Cup: Caitlin Hayes, Anna Patten and Emily Murphy under predecessor Eileen Gleeson, and Erin Healy and Sophie Whitehouse for Ward.

Defensive duo Hayes (30) and Patten (26), and more recently Murphy (23), have established themselves as starters. Healy (24) hasn’t been recalled since her first cap in a friendly against USA last summer. Third-choice goalkeeper Whitehouse (29) bided her time for a breakthrough in November’s behind-closed-doors clash against Hungary.

None of the five players came through the Irish system, with Erin McLaughlin – then playing for Peamount United, now at Glasgow City – the last domestic debutant, in a friendly against Zambia just before the World Cup.

Vera Pauw sought out Irish-eligible players through her reign with 11 of the 21 debuts she awarded declaring through the “granny rule”. Her successors Gleeson and Ward have utilised it too, with the work of FAI Head of Talent ID and Recruitment Aidan Price often referenced.

Of the 12 starting players used against France and the Netherlands, just four are homegrown: Katie McCabe, Denise O’Sullivan, Chloe Mustaki and Megan Connolly.

That quartet started against Les Bleues at Tallaght Stadium, alongside English-born Patten, Hayes, Murphy and Aoife Mannion, and American natives Courtney Brosnan, Marissa Sheva and Kyra Carusa.

With O’Sullivan injured, Lucy Quinn came into the XI for France. The substitutes used across both games were all Irish-born: Abbie Larkin, Amber Barrett and Saoirse Noonan.

Of the 24 call-ups across the international window, just over half (13) came through the Irish system.

This is not unique to the Irish women’s football team – look no further than their male counterparts, or Andy Farrell’s rugby side – but it highlights the fractures in the pathways.

Ireland celebrate Katie McCabe's opener against France. Ryan Byrne / INPHORyan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

The 42 has consistently covered this area: these stark stats, along with the publication of the FAI’s latest strategy plan for 2026 to 2029 on Tuesday, moved it into sharp focus once more.

Entitled ‘It’s time to change the game’, the plan’s three main priorities are to get boys and girls playing more football; develop facilities at every level; and grow talent through League of Ireland Academies.

“With the right investment, we can build a self-sustaining football industry that drives long-term success,” reads one point. “The league will be the engine of our men’s and women’s national teams and a cornerstone of Irish football’s future.”

Twelve months on from the largely underwhelming women and girls’ football action plan for 2025 to 2027, there are brief mentions of the female game throughout, but it takes centre stage towards the end, on page 72 of 86.

A 79% increase in participation and the women’s national team qualifying for their first major tournament are among the successes highlighted. When it comes to top-line goals for the next three years, reaching at least one more major tournament, jumping from 18th to break into Europe’s top 15 ranked teams, and 30% more registered women and girls’ players feature prominently.

Another hugely pressing priority wasn’t as clear-cut, as calls continue to grow for an U21 or U23 international team to bridge the sizeable gap from U19 to senior.

“Look, it is in the strategy,” FAI CEO David Courell told reporters after presenting at Aviva Stadium on Tuesday. “It may not jump out at you, but it’s in there in the formal words of, ‘We commit to aligning to Uefa best practice in the women’s pathway.’

“Uefa have made it clear in their women’s strategy that they will be introducing a new tier of competition for women’s international set-up. My understanding is that is likely to be at U21 level as opposed to what we’ve seen in other countries that are U23. So we are making a commitment that we will be one of the first federations to sign up to that once it comes to light. So we’re just waiting for Uefa to kind of signpost when that will be.”

Ireland’s recent opponents France and Netherlands are among the many League A nations with U23 teams, but financial constraints have not allowed for it here.

Home-based training sessions were used as an alternative under Colin Bell and Vera Pauw, but were discontinued thereafter. A ‘development group’ played the U19s in a training game in last February’s international window, though nothing further came off it.

“It’s an element of, one, we want to do it right when we do it,” Courell continued. “In the sense of if there’s going to be a change in that focus from U23 to U21, then we’d like to get in on the ground floor, if that makes sense, as opposed to working towards something for six, nine, 12, 18 months and then pivoting.

“And then obviously, we need to weigh up all the different investment needs across the women’s game, but also the breadth of the association. So that’s a variable. But primarily, it is about waiting to see what the Uefa position is so that we can line up fully with that.”

To further underline its need: bar uncapped goalkeeper Katie Keane, none of the U19 squad that reached the 2024 European Championship finals have graduated to the senior set-up, while there has been minimal League of Ireland representation in recent squads, with Ward long highlighting the “massive jump”.

The new Women’s Premier Division season started this weekend, 15 years on from its inception in 2011, while a new Women’s Development League is also underway. It consists of existing senior club’s U23 teams and others participating in the LOI academy programme, and replaced the U19 league.

Athlone Town are the back-to-back Women's Premier Division champions. James Crombie / INPHOJames Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

The new FAI strategy plans to use both “to test and shape future pyramid development” and add a younger age group to the women’s academy pathway, which starts at U17 level.

This is welcome news after the removal of regional development centres amid the disbandment of the Emerging Talent Programme, which left elite youngsters lacking top-level contact and a clear pathway in their early teens.