American soccer star Abby Wambach and a group of other elite national players have sued the governing body of international soccer, FIFA, over the proposed playing surface for the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada.
FIFA wants the women to play on artificial turf, while their male counterparts are allowed to play on natural grass for their World Cup.
The lawsuit, which was filed at the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, alleged that FIFA, and co-defendant Canadian Soccer Association, are practicing what is tantamount to gender discrimination under Canadian law.
It is widely believed that that there is a greater risk of injury on artificial turf. The plaintiffs, which besides Wambach includes her U.S. teammate Alex Morgan, Germany’s Nadine Angerer, Brazil’s Fabiana Da Silva Simoes, and Spain’s Veronica Boquete, also claim that the surface impacts both how the game is played and how the ball moves.
“We have to stand up and put our foot down and say, ‘You know what? This isn’t good enough. This isn’t right and we deserve to be treated equally as the men,'” Wambach told the Associated Press.
Thomas Zhong and Samantha Butt, both of DLA Piper, recently wrote about the legal development, noting that “the players allege that this is a breach by the World Cup organizers of section 1 of Canada’s Human Rights Code, which states that:
“’Every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to services, goods and facilities, without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status or disability.’”
Attorney Hampton Dellinger, who is representing the athletes, believes the defendants must change their mind. “Getting an equal playing field at the World Cup is a fight female players should not have to wage, but one from which they do not shrink,” he told the wire service. “In the end, we trust that fairness and equality will prevail over sexism and stubbornness.”
Municipalities Moving Away from Artificial Turf?
Cindy Boren, a blogger with the Washington Post, recently noted municipalities and other groups are moving away from artificial turf, not just because of injuries, but because of its toxic risks.
“While more testing is needed, New York City moved to stop installing crumb rubber fields in its parks in 2008 and the Los Angeles Unified School District did the same in 2009,” she wrote. “In Maryland, the Safe Healthy Playing Fields Coalition supports legislation to require warning signs at artificial turf fields and opposes a bill to use state funds to construct artificial turf fields.”
Plaintiffs Face an Uphill Climb
Zhong and Butt added that the plaintiffs may face an uphill climb.
“It’s in the competition regulations and in the laws of the game that artificial turf can be used for any international match including FIFA World Cup qualifiers and has been used for such matches,” they wrote. “So that’s really no big discussion.”
What may be a “big discussion” is providing men with a playing surface that is inherently more desirable.
“This is discriminatory treatment and a lack of respect for women’s soccer by making the best women soccer players play on a surface that is not good enough for the best men players in the world,” Donna A. Lopiano, Ph.D., the President of Sports Management Resources, told Sports Litigation Alert.
“There are numerous policies that, on their face, do not appear discriminatory, but are indeed discriminatory with regard to application. This is the heart of the matter. Play the men’s World Cup on artificial turf and I’d call the women’s suit frivolous. It will never happen. For Americans, the analogy is back to the men getting the best gym and the women not getting to play there.”
