Turf Wars: The Battle for Grass at the World Cup
A group of the world’s best female soccer players sued FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association on Wednesday, October 1, 2014, filing a gender discrimination complaint with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The group argues that the plan to play next summer’s Women’s World Cup in Canada on artificial turf amounts to gender discrimination under Canadian law. The group of players named in the filing consists of national team players from approximately a dozen countries including American superstar Abby Wambach.
Section 1 of Canada’s human rights code states, “every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to services, goods and facilities, without discrimination.” Furthermore, the players believe artificial turn negatively impacts the game from both a level of play and injury standpoint. The filing seeks an order requiring that the tournament be played on natural grass fields and includes resolutions such as: installing grass fields on top of artificial ones, and relocating games to stadiums with grass surfaces.
The CSA contends that this application is nothing more than a baseless “effort by certain players to highlight a disagreement they have with FIFA.”
The players have been threatening to sue FIFA and the C.S.A. since July but have expressed a clear preference for a negotiated solution. That now seems unlikely as FIFA has indicated it has no plans to accede to the players’ demands.
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