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Players Retain Legal Counsel in Fight Against Artificial Turf at 2015 Women’s World Cup

Joe MacCarthy

By Joe MacCarthy
in Women's National Teams

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Admin

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WOMEN's WORLD CUP ON PLASTIC TURF IS SEXISM / GENDER DISCRIMINATION PURE & SIMPLE. MEN's WORLD CUP HAS NEVER / WOULD NEVER BE PLAYED ON PLATICTURF. CASE CLOSED!

 

If there was money, the Women's World Cup would be on grass. If Canada were a decade ahead of where it is in the game, it would be on grass.  There isn't money to do it, and the current state of the game in this country and existing stadiums just won't let it happen.  We're not ready to do it. 

 

I wish the WWC was on grass. Grass is the best, period. But this is economics,not discrimination. 

 

Can you please stop being a jerk on these forums and talk with the people who are by far and away the top supporters of all soccer in this country. If this passion is driven by interest in the game, then please join us. 

 

Countless people on this forum have gotten their ass on a plane and flown across the country to support the women's team in this country. I have done this in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto and Montreal. Many of these cities more than once.

 

So get on board and stop accusing us of shit we don't do.

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Fair enough. I agree they are not the same. I also understand why the women would prefer to play on grass. My point is that it is emphatically NOT a gender bias issue! FIFA have the right to decide what surface to use for their tournaments. If they decide that artificial turf is fine then that is their prerogative for their tournament. If the women were afraid of artificial turf then they wouldn't play on it, but they do! So, any inherent problem with turf cannot be part of their argument; hence any discussion of the differences between artificial turf and grass is completely irrelevant for the purposes of this discussion.

 

At the end of the day, Canada's proposal to host was predicated on playing on turf. If there was a bid that involved playing on grass then, taking everything into consideration, including the turf vs. grass aspect, it was considered by FIFA to be inferior to Canada's bid. If the players didn't want to play on artificial turf, the time to complain was when the tournament was awarded to Canada, not long after the fact! And even then, it would still have been a FIFA decision, not a case for the Human Rights Commission!!!

 

To summarize, any differences between artificial turf and grass are completely irrelevant because the women are more than happy to play on artificial turf and do it all the time. Hence my rather exasperated previous post. Apologies for that, it was rather late and I was tired!

 

The men's World Cup will never be played on turf, not unless if falls by the way side economically speaking and I don't see that happening any time soon.  

 

It is far more likely the women's world cup will grow to the point where this doesn't happen and always plays on grass for the same reasons when people are bidding on it and the TV rights are worth something. I think this can happen sooner rather than later. 

 

The growth in women's soccer in every facet from play to fans has been nothing short of phenomenal.  I have the VHS tapes of the 91, 95 and 99 finals on my bookshelf.  I don't even own a VCR any more. Just try watching the 91 final and you will see how far we have come.

 

I do think you are making the assumption that they are 'more than happy' to play on turf. They have to play turf, just like the Whitecaps do cause they have no choice.  All players will always choose a good grass field over turf. Always. 

 

Canada didn't do a bait and switch. It was turf from the get go, and these protests should have been launched ages ago. This is more than likely a PR move by the USSF to do anything in their power to discredit the CSA against 2026.

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The Ref Community Regular

The Ref

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This Concacaf Seminar http://www.concacaf.com/article/concacaf-to-host-lets-develop-womens-football-seminar seems timely in lieu of the turf vs grass discussion here.  Did I miss something as I don't see any CSA reps as keynote speakers listed?   Considering that we are hosting two women world events back to back, I think it would be appropriate to have someone from the CSA talking.

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sidney Newbie

sidney

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I said "MEN'S WORLD CUP" not this junior U-whatever stuff.

Proof: Men have never played on turf since 1930, and the upcoming 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) Men's world cups will both be on grass. Why can't you see the sexism that is right in front of your face?

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Vic Newbie

Vic

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I'm not sure if you're very young or just quite simple, but unfortunately the world is far more complicated than you understand it.  Would you perform brain surgery?  Would you design a neutrino collider?  Of course not.  So why do you know more than FIFA?  Because you've played a few games of soccer?

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madmonte Newbie

madmonte

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I said "MEN'S WORLD CUP" not this junior U-whatever stuff.

Proof: Men have never played on turf since 1930, and the upcoming 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) Men's world cups will both be on grass. Why can't you see the sexism that is right in front of your face?

 

lol If you don't see the irony in THAT statement...

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ted Mentor

ted

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Just for fun has anyone else seen this article: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/how-safe-artificial-turf-your-child-plays-n220166

From the article:

Two young female goalies Griffin knew had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Griffin, associate head coach for the University of Washington’s women’s soccer team, had started to visit the women and other athletes in local hospitals, helping them pass the time during chemo with war stories from her three decades of coaching.

 

That day, the nurse looked down at the woman Griffin was sitting with and said, "Don't tell me you guys are goalkeepers. You're the fourth goalkeeper I've hooked up this week.

 

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rob.notenboom Community Regular

rob.notenboom

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You guys, Craig Forrest was a goalkeeper and he had cancer.

After playing his whole career on grass pitches.

OH MY GOD

Fully realizing it may be a statistically insignificant number of players, and much ado about nothing ... but one should not write this stuff off (or claim it to be a potential cancer causing situation) without a reasonable amount of study. Why jump to a conclusion either way? Until then, business as usual (keep playing on artificial surfaces and not worrying about it).

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-Hammer- Enthusiast

-Hammer-

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There is something very "not right" about that NBC report.  Comes across as almost National Enquirer like. 

 

I have to wonder if artificial turf has such a causal effect to cancer, why aren't football running backs dropping like flies.

 

Pretty much the point I was going to make, heck why aren't any football players dropping like flies to cancer if turf causes cancer. Most Football players play on it and practice on turf from the College level onward. Heck even when I was in highschool we occasionally used Ivor Wynne stadium for our games, which was also turf.

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