The Ireland women's football players will each receive the full €300 ($319) match fee they sought following Wednesday's agreement with the FA of Ireland, according to Ger Keville of the IRISH INDEPENDENT. The Services, Industrial, Professional & Technical Union and Professional Footballers' Association of Ireland representatives "secured an agreement with the FAI after nine hours of talks" which ended at 4am on Thursday. PFAI solicitor Stuart Gilhooly said that there is a "confidentiality agreement" and while he cannot disclose the terms of the agreement, he said that the issues raised at the Liberty Hall meeting were "addressed." All of the main requests have reportedly been met, "with the only stumbling block the FAI's refusal to deal directly with the PFAI in the future." Each Ireland player will receive a flat €300 match fee with a win bonus of €150 ($159.63) for competitive games and €75 ($79.82) for a draw, "as outlined in the players' document during their press conference in Liberty Hall earlier this week." Players who have to take unpaid time off while representing their country "will also be remunerated." Women's national team players will reportedly be supplied with their own tracksuits "following the contentious revelations that players were forced to change out of their Ireland apparel in airport toilets because they were needed by underage sides" (IRISH INDEPENDENT, 4/6). The IRISH TIMES reported a central issue "had been the association's steadfast refusal" to engage with the PFAI despite the players "making it clear that was how they wished to proceed." It is "unclear from the statement if that position has changed." Goalkeeper and team captain Emma Byrne said on Wednesday that this was the way the team wanted to proceed. She said, "We [the players] don’t want to deal with it." Byrne described it as "humiliating" that the players "had to resort to airing their grievances in public" (IRISH TIMES, 4/6).
