U.S. women: Men would never play World Cup on turf

Martin Rogers | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Turf Wars at the Women's World Cup Despite the impassioned and legal battle undertaken by the world’s best players, the World Cup will go ahead – on turf.

WINNIPEG, Canada – FIFA, soccer's world governing body, has been called a lot of things lately and none of them have been very complimentary. Indeed, being described as "greedy, sexist and stubborn" would probably feel like a soothing bath right now compared to the repeated revelations of alleged corruption that have crushed the organization's credibility.

There is nothing to suggest that the decision to play the Women's World Cup on turf instead of natural grass had anything to do with corruption. Women's soccer doesn't attract the kind of mega money that the miscreants love, the sort of heady figures where a few million can be skimmed off the top with a flick of a computer key and a cheeky little wire transfer.

Forcing the world's best female players to perform on surfaces unbefitting their talent wasn't a corrupt decision, it was just an ignorant and unequal one.

"Men would never play a World Cup on turf," United States forward Sydney Leroux told USA TODAY Sports. "Some men in Major League Soccer don't even travel when (games are) on turf because they won't play on it."

Artificial turf isn't even an issue in most parts of the soccer world because playing official games on anything other than natural grass would be as alien as scheduling them on planks of wood with rusty nails poking out.

Turf, leading players will tell you, chews up your legs and causes slide burns. Others talk of lingering muscle and joint pain compared to grass. The medical field is rife with theories and counter-theories as to whether it causes serious injuries.

Several members of the U.S. team were among 40 international female players who launched a lawsuit to try to prevent FIFA and the Canadian organizers from going ahead as planned.

That's where the "sexism, greed and stubbornness" thing came from. It was the exact wording used by the lawyer representing the players.

But FIFA refused to change. So the women, honorably and unfortunately, were forced to drop the suit for the good of the game, knowing a boycott would be catastrophic. It did nothing to quell their discontent.

"FIFA made a $338 million profit on the 2014 men's World Cup," U.S. midfielder Megan Rapinoe wrote in May on The Players Tribune website. "To say that it's not logistically possible to install real grass at all the stadiums is not acceptable."

Earlier this week, World Cup organizers proudly unveiled the new turf installed at BC Place in Vancouver, site of the tournament final.

"Technology advances in many aspects of life, and we're excited that we are part of the first ones to have it," said Don Hardman of the FIFA National Organizing Committee.

But as much as those who defend turf as being the future, it isn't. The major concession the women's players won from FIFA was that all future World Cups would be played on grass.

We will see. For now, inequality still rules and stands as another dark mark on the legacy of soccer's crumbling governing regime.