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Abby Wambach: FIFA refused free grass, opts for skin-tearing turf

By Tim Mack

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FIFA refused a free offer to replace the Women’s World Cup artificial turf with real grass and the players are not happy about it. 

FIFA seems to believe that soccer is best played on artificial turf rather than grass. They believe in this notion so much that they are utilizing turf at this summer’s Women’s World Cup. The players are not happy about this though because for them, turf is a harsh surface to play on and any type of slide usually results in cuts and gashes from the rough turf.

FIFA doesn’t seem to care though. At all.

Abby Wambach, a female soccer player and star on the United States women’s national team, sued FIFA over the turf issue as a gender discrimination suit, recently revealed that FIFA was offered grass for free. However, FIFA refused the free grass and chose the turf instead.

This is a disgusting display of gender inequality. FIFA is implementing a widely disliked turf type for the biggest tournament in women’s soccer. No World Cup has ever been played on turf. Would FIFA implement this type of field for the men’s World Cup? Probably not. Why go against the voice of almost every female player and implement this skin-grating artificial turf?

Because FIFA doesn’t care.

When asked about what women’s soccer can do to boost viewrship and fans, FIFA president Sepp Blatter said,”They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men – such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create a more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?”

Obviously he doesn’t take women’s soccer seriously if he is talking about women wearing tighter shorts to make female soccer more appealing. Maybe FIFA can boost women’s soccer with advertising, or maybe listening to their players and not using turf in the field? How is women’s soccer supposed to advance at all when the organization itself is decades behind the rest of the world?

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