Players Should Refuse To Play If No Grass in WWC.

I think the Men have more power than FIFA. The fans dont care about the FIFA brand and will support players whether FIFA deems it an official WC or not.

 

According to Alex Morgan's recent interview, the players now are not focusing on the lawsuit and essentially are leaving it to the lawyers. Instead, they're focusing on preparation for the WWC.

 

True, the men probably do have more power, but I'd argue that they have power from their status with their clubs, not national teams. They know where their bread is buttered. A real alternate to FIFA (meaning that it involved national teams playing in international games. If clubs held the power, they'd have no incentive to have an international calendar, release players for international play, etc.) would have to involve federations, and I would have said a few days ago that they have too much at stake to go against FIFA. Personally, I'd prefer that there just be a serious house cleaning in FIFA. In the past couple of days, its looking more and more possible. It all just hit the fan on the men's side with the publishing of the redacted report on 2018 and 2022 bids and Garcia's response, pointing out the omissions and misrepresentations. The FBI is already involved, and UK's SFO may be getting involved. There are rumors, too, that UEFA may take a united stand against FIFA. Who knows what may happen in the coming months?

All that to say, I think the ladies' suit just took a back seat to what's happening on the men's side (if it hadn't already taken a back seat).

 

Certainly UEFA's action would be a milestone.

 

There are 54 UEFA votes.

There are 60 CAF votes and a whole pile of Carribean ones. Throw in Asia and UEFA is swamped, even if comnebol joins them with their 10 votes.

 

Sarah Gehrke ‏@Sarah_Gehrke 57m57 minutes ago
ESPN Brazil is reporting the Brazil men's national team won't play in the PanAm games in Canada bc of artificial turf http://espn.uol.com.br/noticia/469090_futebol-masculino-do-brasil-nao-disputara-pan-de-2015-diz-cob…

Sarah Gehrke ‏@Sarah_Gehrke 49m49 minutes ago
The reason cited for not sending the Brazilian men's team to the PanAm games is concern about injuries

 

It might be more genuine if they withdrew the women's team.

 

I know it isnt what u meant but shouldnt they be withdrawing both their men's and women's team from PanAm?

 

Perhaps they only care about protecting the men from injuries?

 

Tough love?

 

It is one thing withdrawing from PanAm games it is quite another withdrawing from the World Cup.

I doubt very seriously that the Brazil senior men's team would withdraw from playing in the World Cup if the situation was the same.

Withdrawing the men for PanAm games is NOT the same as withdrawing the women from the World Cup. Much more at stake in the WC.

 

Right-- but the question was about the women's participation in the Pan Am games?

 

This bothers me of those of you who advocate that players should withdraw from playing in the WWC.

So let's say that the USWNT says no, we won't play and Brazil or China or anyone else wins the WWC2015, those same people here who advocate withdrawing will be the same people who would then say, Oh well it's tainted, the team who won isn't the "real" champion because the US didn't play. Silly.

I say make your point heard, but play this World Cup that the host team has worked hard to put together including all the people who will have employment during the WC, and hope that is a warning to FIFA that in the future you won't put up with being a second class citizen. And they will have time to make proper adjustments and pick suitable venues next WC.

 

I agree but it still looks bad for FIFA having a big mens team make that sort of statement about injuries while FIFA is saying there is no greater injury risk.

 

I had forgotten that wouldn't be at BMO either.

 

Didn't they play on Turf at Salt lake for a nice payout?

 

You will have to try much harder to make me go ballistic. You have way too much credibility with all the work you have done to educate us about women's college soccer. Obviously you are no misogynist.

 

Update: the legal fight is over. Even the proposed compromise of only the final and semifinals being on grass didn't work. Proud of the ladies for standing up and taking on FIFA, even if FIFA did win this one.

 

Final Jeopardy for Feb 22, 2015:

Events 2014

To prepare venues hosting this event, 12 billion perennial rye grass seeds were imported from Manitoba, 5,000 miles away.

Question: What is the world cup?

FIFA shipped grass seeds from Canada to Brazil for the Men's WC, but not willing to ship within Canada for the Women's Cup.

http://www.jeopardy.com/gamesandmobile/clueoftheday/

 

Here's how well that imported grass did in Brasil.

 

Just to clarify, the grass was not imported. It was seeds that were grown in Canada that were imported. The pitches in the stadiums were then overseeded (meaning the existing grass was left in place) with the imported seeds. Part of the difficulty was due to the climate of cities (such as Manaus, the one you pictured) and part of it seemed to be due to the grounds crews not doing a good job.

These seeds were also used for grass at the 2010 MWC and the 2012 UEFA MCL without problem.

This really has no bearing on the Canada WWC situation, though, as those stadiums all have artificial turf installed. So throwing seeds on top of that would just make a mess, not give you a grass field.

 

Yeh.

Just happened to be where the USA played.

 

I know most of us probably see different ads at the top and bottom of this page, but I think FIFA has hacked the system:
Artificial Lawn
Bay Area Leader in Artificial Turf. Save 70% on Your Water Bill!

 

Doesnt the risk of an ACL doing yard work outweigh the water savings?