Artificial Turf in the World Cup
Issues in the Women's World cup involving artificial turf
What is the controversy?
In the 2015 Women's World Cup, Canada hosted the tournament and supplied all of their stadiums with artificial turf. But this caused a huge controversy throughout all of the women athletes disagreeing with the decision to use artificial turf. The biggest problem was the fact that the year before in the men's World Cup, the men were provided natural grass fields to play on. The women playing the World Cup were very unhappy with FIFA because of the controversy.
Bigger than the Artificial Turf
The controversy of the artificial turf being used only in the women's World Cup is bigger than the surface having a disadvantage. The women players are upset about equality rights and how women should be treated the same as men. If the women were treated the same, either the men would have played on artificial turf or the women would have played on natural grass. I agree with the women athletes; women needed to be treated equally to the men and need to have the same playing surface so both genders can compete at the same level.
Abby Wambachs opinion
Abby Wambach is highly against turf stating that it changes the play of the game. "In the previous game, I don't lay out and commit to those headers and that's why they glance off my head rather than me contacting them. For me, I definitely think that the U.S. has more goals if we're playing on grass," Abby Wambach states. Abby is saying that the ball bounces differently on grass than it does on artificial turf. On turf, the ball bounces higher giving the goalie more of a chance to save the ball. This brings a disadvantage to every team in the offense but Wambach says that the U.S. has to adapt to what ever FIFA throws at them.
Injuries add up
Two national team players, Abby Wambach and Sydney Leroux, are two players highly against artificial turf because of the increase in injuries. The players say that artificial turf burns when you slide on it unlike grass which is very true. One of the national team doctors has says, "due to the harder impact of turf during running and falls, they become more obvious as a tournament progresses." The doctor is talking about how artificial turf causes more injuries especially in the long run. Also, artificial turf can get extremely hot causing cleats to melt which can cause even more injuries and problems.