Here is the silly thing. Let's assume that the player proposed $3 million temporary grass fix is a viable solution. Now let's subtract $500K as Moncton was grass leaving us a $2.5 million bill. FIFA spent $2 million to put turf down in Moncton to level the playing fields as it were. Moncton, who needs a grass field their because they host major Canadian Track & Field meets there, then ponied up $500K to build a new grass soccer field outside the stadium. So essentially, they have already spent the same amount of money not to have WC on grass as it would have cost them to have it on grass. How dumb is that?
It seems obvious that part of the intent is to test the concept against, say, a men's world cup in some place where real grass might not be sustainable; someplace like, say, Qatar?
Yeah, that Qatar isnt building indoor climate controlled stadiums with turf pretty much blows the theory that turf is a viable option, especially considering that when they got the bid they had another decade of advancement in turf technology to look forward to before they needed to implement it.
Since everything has to be new for the Qatar WC, they could take the Arizona Cardinals approach. It makes sense to me. It will take a chunk of water to keep the grass growing but after the WC, they can convert to fake grass and the water can be distributed elsewhere.
Not to mention the colossal waste of water to grow and maintain. Sadly, water is not an infinite resource; it seems that superfluous uses should be curtailed. (You'd think desert communities would be atune to this . . .)
Qatar gets most of it's water from desalination. There will be plenty of seawater around in upcoming years...
haven't seen anyone post on this, but according to grant wahl, (he commented on this during the last mexico game, I think) teresa noyola was pressured by her fed to remove her name from the lawsuit. does anyone know why?
Desert communities are perfectly attuned to the cost of water and the need for using all of it. If they don't use it, they risk having their share of rivers like the Colorado taken away, and it is virtually free to them. It is so cheap that major crops are hay and rice in deserts. Farmers in the Central and Imperial Valleys pay much less for water than I do here in the rainy NW.
FIFA interview about the testing of the Canadian field for WC 2015 and how Turf is the way to go in Canada for a WC. Grant Wahl who contibute for Fox Soocer coverage as well as SI suggest u can easily substitute Russia for Canada in the article and get a determination that Russia 2018 should be played on FieldTurf. Using logic of FIFA "expert," Russia men's World Cup needs to be played on artificial turf, not grass http://www.fifa.com/womensworldcup/news/newsid=2461003/index.html…
It was apparently because FIFA was threatening to suspend or unaffiliate her, and in turn, the Mexican federation wouldn't call her up to play in the CONCACAF tournament. French players who were part of the lawsuit have also now withdrawn as FIFA allegedly threatened them with not awarding France the 2019 WWC if they remained part of the lawsuit. FIFA threatening players with these kind of actions and in effect telling them to "sit down and shut up" has made me more angry than anything else in this whole saga. Apparently I'm not alone in that; according to Equalizer, for the three that have withdrawn, twenty other players have signed up. The Equalizer has more info, and included in the legal document linked in the article is the list of the list of the players currently involved: http://womens.soccerly.com/2014/10/...ayers-artificial-turf-world-cup-noyola-abily/
That "threat" re: the French 2019 bid seems particularly laughable as part of the whole apologia re: the 2015 turf argument is the whine that "Canada submitted the only bid".
That is all the better for FIFA. They can throw out the French bid and help South Africa host the games on FieldTurf. FIFA can say they are leaving a legacy of less expensive sustainable fields.
One of the best analyses of the lawsuit I've seen so far: http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-fut...orld-cup-artificial-turf-lawsuit-analysis-wwc
In case it hasnt been mentioned elsewhere 13 US Senators sent letters to FIFA and USSoccer asking that they do whatever they can to see that Canada 2015 is played on grass. I mention this mostly because I had the pleasure of running into NY Senator Chuck Schumer today and got a chance to thank him for his efforts for woso. Yeah me!
Nice gesture on the part of the US senators, but I'm not sure its going to help though. If anyone hasn't heard, the request to expedite the hearing so that it might have some effect before the WWC begins was denied. CSA has also indicated that they will not participate in early mediation. At this point, the ladies' fight is not looking good.
fifa usually turns out to be omnipotent at the end of most of these skirmishes - an unfortunate (some think necessary) fact in this game we love.
Im not sure I understand the CSA strategy here. If I were them I would have accepted mediation and simply dragged it out without conceding anything. By refusing mediation the court may feel they need to reconsider their ruling.
My original thought was there were only two ways to move FIFA into doing something. Either the men had to take a stand and demand a commitment from FIFA the WC will continue to only be played on grass until it is proven that Turf technology has equaled grass or the fans had to get involved. If fans started demanding ticket refunds and making it clear to advertisers they werent interested buying goods and services from companies that supported gender inequality, then FIFA would put in grass. At the end of the day, FIFA isnt about soccer it's about making money.
These r the Senator who signed: The U.S. senators who signed the letters are: Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Patty Murray (D-Washington), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York), Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Barbara Boxer (D-California), Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey), Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania) and Maria Cantwell (D-Washington). Only Ed Markey was running this year and he was returned to office.
Right now, FIFA has pretty much been able to stay out of it by correctly pointing out that a Canadian court has no jurisdiction over them. Yet at the end of the day, if anything is going to be done, I agree that FIFA will have to do it....unfortunately. Even if the suit was successful, I can see FIFA refusing to act since a Canadian court wouldn't be able to force them to do anything. As for FIFA's power being necessary, there's actually been an interesting discussion going on in the US Men's forum about the choice of Qatar. In that thread, people are discussing whether an alternate to FIFA or alternate WC could ever happen....interesting, if unrealistic. I'm sure I'm not alone in the wish that someone would come and clean house in FIFA, but as that's not likely to happen anytime soon, all of us (fans, federations, players) are stuck in a less-than-ideal situation, regarding FIFA.