A group of prominent women’s soccer players pressing FIFA to install natural grass for matches at this summer’s Women’s World Cup withdrew its complaint Wednesday, grudgingly accepting that the event will be played entirely on artificial turf.

The players had filed their complaint last fall with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. In it, they accused FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association, which will host the World Cup, with gender discrimination, and charged that the organizations had repeatedly refused to discuss a resolution.

But with FIFA and organizers unbending in their insistence that playing on artificial turf was allowed under FIFA rules, and with the tournament set to open in fewer than six months, the players dropped the case.

“Our legal action has ended,” the American striker Abby Wambach said in a statement released by the players’ lawyers. “But I am hopeful that the players’ willingness to contest the unequal playing fields — and the tremendous public support we received during the effort — marks the start of even greater activism to ensure fair treatment when it comes to women’s sports.”