IT SET US ON RIGHT PATH

From strike talk to World Cup in 6 years

- GARRY DOYLE

STEPHANIE Zambra was on a stage in a crowded room, the nation's media there to chronicle Irish football's biggest split since Saipan.

There, alongside her, were the remaining members of the Irish women's national team - each of them risking their international futures.

The year was 2017, the stage was Dublin's Liberty Hall, the issue was the conditions our national women's team had to endure under John Delaney's FAI, and the threat was blunt: to go on strike.

Had their message been misinterpreted, then it wasn't just their careers on the line, but also their reputation.

And Zambra, nee Roche, as the squad's biggest name on the back of her nomination for the 2014 Puskas goal of the year award, felt the fear.

She said: "Definitely, I was (scared). That was something we all talked about the entire squad.

"The one thing we all thought was 'The public are going to think we're a bunch of divas, are they going to go against us and say we should be proud to just play for our country'.