2015 Women's World Cup

Next summer Canada will be hosting the FIFA Women's World Cup... maybe.

More than 40 of the best players from women's football have brought forth a case against FIFA in the Human Rights Tribunal in Ontario, Canada over the decision to play the World Cup matches on artificial turf rather than grass. The players and their lawyers argue that playing matches on turf rather than grass amounts to gender discrimination as no Men's World Cup has ever been played on turf or been seriously considered for such. Their efforts have been bolstered by the support of a group of 13 U.S. Senators who have written to FIFA president Sepp Blatter and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati calling for efforts to be made to find a means of playing on real grass.

Despite complaints that turf changes the nature of football due to its different texture and firmness AND reports suggesting that artificial turf puts greater strain on the body and increases the chances of certain types of injuries, FIFA has so far refused to consider the possibility of using actual grass.


Players that have signed the petition (and are part of the case):
Abby Wambach - USA
Heather O'Reilly - USA
Carli Lloyd - USA
Shannon Boxx - USA
Ali Krieger - USA
Alex Morgan - USA
Whitney Engen - USA
Ashlyn Harris - USA
Christie Rampone - USA
安藤 梢 (Kozue Ando) - JPN
大儀見 優季 (Yūki Ōgimi) - JPN
Anja Mittag - GER
Nadine Angerer - GER
Annike Krahn - GER
Célia Okoyino da Mbabi - GER
Kim Kulig - GER
Almuth Schult - GER
Laura Benkarth - GER
Melanie Behringer - GER
Nadine Keßler - GER
Lena Goeßling - GER
Alexandra Popp - GER
Babbett Peter - GER
Melissa Barbieri - AUS
Sam Kerr - AUS
Caitlin Foord - AUS
Natalia Gaitan - COL
Melissa Ortiz - COL
Nataly Arias - COL
Stefany Castaño - COL
Eugénie Le Sommer - FRA
Camille Abily - FRA
Wendie Renard - FRA
Sarah Bouhaddi - FRA
Élise Bussaglia - FRA
Louisa Nécib - FRA
Caroline Seger - SWE
Lotta Schelin - SWE
Kosavare Asllani - SWE
Olivia Schough - SWE
Sara Thunebro - SWE
Malin Levenstad - SWE
Sofia Lundgren - SWE
Emma Berglund - SWE
Charlotte Rohlin - SWE
Hedvig Lindahl - SWE
Nilla Fischer - SWE
Annica Svensson - SWE
Therese Sjoran - SWE
Caroline Jönsson - SWE
Anita Asante - ENG
Faye White - ENG
Nora Holstad - NOR
Ingvild Isaken - NOR
Maren Mjelde - NOR
Arianna Romero - MEX
Theresa 'Lupita' Worbis - MEX
Jackie Acevedo - MEX
Renae Cuéllar - MEX
Ana-Maria Crnogorčević - SUI
Noëlle Maritz - SUI
Vanessa Bernauer - SUI
Sandra Betschart - SUI
Martina Moser - SUI
Rahel Kiwic - SUI
Fabienne Humm - SUI
Shannon Smyth - IRL
Ciara Grant (b. 1993) - IRL
Veronica Boquete - ESP
Erin Nayler - NZF
Stefanía Maggiolini - URY
Desire Oparanozie - NGA
Indira Ilić - SRB
Getter Laar - EST
Michelle Akers - USA (Retired)
Linda Hamilton - USA (Retired)
Sandra Smisek - GER (Retired)



It seems a fairly blatant case of discrimination to me, to be honest. FIFA clearly have the necessary funds in reserve to find a method of installing grass (of at least the quality of the 2010 and 2014 MWCs) for this but are refusing simply because it is a Women's World Cup instead. You can be damned sure they'll do everything possible to play on grass in Qatar and Russia.

Thoughts?








Links:
http://worldsoccertalk.com/2014/08/13/top-female-soccer-players-express-outrage-that-womens-world-cup-will-be-played-on-artificial-grass/

http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/11837028/women-soccer-stars-court-mediation-resolve-canada-world-cup-artificial-turf-suit

http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/11/07/womens-world-cup-turf-senators-letter-sunil-gulati-sepp-blatter

Yeah this is an awful situation honestly and FIFA are obviously being very pig-headed about it. Gulati's silence only really exacerbates the situation considering so many US players involved in this.

I would love to know FIFA's rationale around why men can play on grass, but women somehow can't.

I don't see this as gender discrimination, more as just laziness from FIFA... It's not just the grass, there's no where near as much effort put into the tournaments like the U-20 (men and women) and women's World Cup as there is towards the main event. Why? Revenue.

Power to these players for demanding grass but I wouldn't be surprised if a great many of the women involved in this case just want better playing conditions and gender discrimination is the best legal approach to take.

I think it's a bit of both. I don't think FIFA thinks Women's World Cup is an important event. It could mainly be about the money or it could also be about gender discrimination. But if Women's World Cup was generating more money than the Men's, then FIFA would without a doubt be supplying a free 7 star resort for each country's team to stay at.

It's an awful situation for the players themselves. Artificial turfs are terrible to play in due to a very high chance of injury and the general play being rubbish. FIFA's negligence on this matter is even worse. They probably know the situation well but they won't do anything about it because there is nothing in it for them.

Considering FIFA are officially a non-profit organization, it's highly ironic they would dig their heels in over such a small request over a matter of money.

Good for them.

I just went to my Niece's football tournament in the Washington DC area, she's 12 and on the Junior Olympic team and one of the best travel teams in the USA from South Florida, in fact at the tournament they beat the #1 team.

There were over 200 teams of all age groups with the best players/teams in there age groups and EVERY SINGLE game was played on Artificial Turf.  

I asked one of the guys running the tournament if this was normal and he said oh yea, then I asked if the boys play on Turf and he said, no way, not at this level.

It's F'd up.  There were tons of injuries my Niece sprained her knee another girl on the team totally blew out her knee and just tons of injuries in general.

She made a slide tackle and had massive patch of skin rubbed raw on her leg.  Football just isn't made for artificial turf no matter how much better it's gotten.

Not to mention the ball completely jumps off the turf.

I didn't think it was right having these girls play on it, there's no way the biggest Woman's event should be held on it.

There's a reason almost every player who comes to the MLS from Europe has a clause in there contract to decide if they want to play on Artificial Turf fields or not.  

FIFA once again showing there total lack of common sense.

Well, I really hope the case will go through and FIFA will be put in their place for once.

I guess the discrimination charge is the one they can best get a result with and I hope they will win!

One sports lawyer from ESPN has suggested that they have a very good chance of winning though I've no idea what his overall qualifications for commenting on this are. Either way, the case has already been brought and unless FIFA and CSA (Canadian Soccer Association) agree to meet and actually compromise the case will likely last months which could still interfere with the WWC regardless of its end result.

Groups
A: Canada, New Zealand, China, Netherlands
B: Germany, Ivory Coast, Thailand, Norway
C: Japan, Cameroon, Ecuador, Switzerland
D: USA, Nigeria, Australia, Sweden
E: Brazil, Costa Rica, Korea Republic, Spain
F: France, Mexico, Colombia, England

A and D look like the groups of death to me, but F will be hotly contested, too, I think.

Canada face a very tough group. It's undeniably the strongest group in the tournament and if the host nation make any mistakes they could face early elimination.

I think after A, D might get interesting, too. USA are certainly on top of it, but Sweden are no slouches either. And if the U20 World Cup is a hint, then Nigeria might put up a fight, too.

if canada play half decent and Sinclair stays healthy i dont see any reason why we shouldn't get out of the group, have beaten all those teams before. Sinclair is the x factor tho, better then every player in that group

By the way, here's the Top20 of the current FIFA ranking of the women:

Code:

1 - Germany ...         2176    
2 - USA ...             2158
3 - France ...          2091
4 - Japan ...           2084
5 - Sweden ...          2000
6 - England ...         1984
7 - Korea DPR ...       1981
8 - Brazil ...          1968
9 - Canada ...          1962
10 - Australia ...      1957
11 - Netherlands ...    1933
12 - Norway ...         1928
13 - China PR ...       1880
14 - Italy ...          1879
15 - Spain ...          1875
16 - Denmark ...        1855
17 - Korea Republic ... 1836    
18 - New Zealand ...    1827    
19 - Switzerland ...    1826    
20 - Iceland ...        1818

We finally made it past the USA!

http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/women/index.html

Argentina would have such a good team if our football culture were not so sexist

Thinking of all the know-how that's being wasted because "football is not for ladies" angers me

Well, Germany suffered from "football is not for ladies" for decades, too. Imagine we didn't even have a national team when we were invited for the inofficial women's world cup in 1980!

When a German official was in Taiwan with a boys' youth team, he was given an invitation for said women's world cup. He was too embarassed to mention that Germany didn't have a women NT in 1980, so they decided to send the German club champion Bergisch Gladbach to the inofficial world cup. Funnily they won the thing, and thus the DFB decided it might be not a bad idea to set up a women NT. That means the German women NT only exists since 1982!

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Argentina would have such a good team if our football culture were not so sexist

Thinking of all the know-how that's being wasted because "football is not for ladies" angers me

Isn't it the same in Italy as well?

Lord Spencer wrote:Isn't it the same in Italy as well?

AFAIK in many of the classic football power houses, women football is treated rather negligently. Germany took quite a while until we put some focus on womwen football, too.

In Germany it was explicitely forbidden until 1970 (!) - no official football club within the DFB was allowed to have a female team. The DFB only decided to allow it when the women refused not to play and the DFB feared that we might set up our own version of the DFB.

By now about 1 million women are organised in football clubs under the DFB in Germany.

Hey RWO, why isn't Angerer playing for Germany against Brazil in the Algarve Cup right now? Injury?

Nadine Angerer isn't injured, but in the last matches, coach Silvia Neid decided to rotate her with Almuth Schult so that Schult would get more experience as Nadine Angerer isn't the youngest anymore and the German team is gradually phasing older players out and new players in (well, and of course we do have a lot of injuries like WPotY 2014 Nadine Kessler who will undergo surgery on her knee and now Luisa Wensing who broke her leg in the match against China and some others).

BTW, Silvia Neid gave three young players of the U20 World Champions their senior debut in the China match.

24 years old Almuth Schult isn't exactly bad either - she already stood in when Nadine Angerer was injured and played in the last Algarve Cup, and she was named IFFHS World Goalkeeper 2014 together with Hope Solo after she won the double of Bundesliga and Champions League with VfL Wolfsburg in 2013/14.

By the way, we already have the next top goal keeper waiting behind Almuth Schult, U20 World Champion Meike Kämper who was voted keeper of the tournament in 2014.

That Germany team, despite missing out on the Algarve Cup final, are well worth their #1 spot in the world rankings. Made a Brazil side that's drawn with and beat the USWNT this year look like amateurs at times.

Well, it is a pity that we can't play the Algarve Cup final against the USofA, but our girls messed up big time against Sweden who really played well in the first match. I hope that Germany and the US will have a nice match in Canada somewhere along the tournament!

The US looked much better in today's final against France. That early goal seemed to help calm nerves and give the US control.

23 days to kick-off. Germany going into this as favourites?

Hm. Dunno. We have about 7 or 8 starters injured.  On the other hand, that shouldn't be an excuse for a German NT. Plus Nadine Anger will want to lead the kids to the World Cup as she will hang up her gloves after the tournament.

Preliminary line-up for the German NT (will be reduced to 23 players by 24 May 2015):

GKs: Nadine Angerer (Portland Thorns), Laura Benkarth (SC Freiburg), Almuth Schult (VfL Wolfsburg), Lisa Weiß (SGS Essen)

Defense: Saskia Bartusiak, Bianca Schmidt, Kathrin Hendrich (all 1. FFC Frankfurt), Tabea Kemme, Jennifer Cramer (both Turbine Potsdam), Annike Krahn, Josephine Henning (both Paris St. Germain), Leonie Maier (Bayern München), Babett Peter (VfL Wolfsburg)

Midlfield: Fatmire Alushi* (Paris St. Germain), Melanie Leupolz, Melanie Behringer, Lena Lotzen (Bayern München), Sara Däbritz (SC Freiburg), Anna Blässe, Lena Goeßling (VfL Wolfsburg), Simone Laudehr, Dzsenifer Marozsán (both 1. FFC Frankfurt)

Strikers: Pauline Bremer (FFC Turbine Potsdam), Anja Mittag (FC Rosengard), Lena Petermann (SC Freiburg), Alexandra Popp (VfL Wolfsburg), Celia Sasic** (1. FFC Frankfurt)

*) née Fatmire "Lira" Bajramaj
**) nèe Célia Okoyino-daMbabi