Women Soccer Players Are Suing FIFA For Trying To Make Them Play On Artificial Turf

For instance, the highest-paid female soccer player, the Brazilian Marta Vieira da Silva, is reported to make about $400,000 a year from the Swedish team that employs her - very good money, for sure, but not a mind-blowing number.

By contrast, Real Madrid pays Cristiano Ronaldo a staggering $49 million a year, due to the overwhelming worldwide popularity of men's soccer.

Though it's unlikely female athletes will be paid the same as men in the near future, the world's top women soccer players are seeking an equal playing field in the literal sense.

Players who are competing in the 2015 Women's World Cup, to be held in Canada, filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Soccer Association and FIFA, soccer's international governing body, alleging that they are being discriminated against by being asked to play their tournament on artificial turf when the men get to play theirs on natural grass.

The suit, filed before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, claims that artificial turf is a substandard playing surface that changes the way the ball bounces and puts players at a greater risk of injury.

The women also note that FIFA's own magazine has said that artificial turf fields are "deeply problematic" and that the game's elite male players refuse to play on them.

Anecdotally, two of the best players for Major League Soccer's New York Red Bulls, defender Jamison Olave and legendary forward Thierry Henry, simply do not play when the Red Bulls are on the road against a team that has an artificial playing field.

The women are requesting that FIFA either install natural grass playing surfaces at the stadiums presently scheduled to host the games or move the tournament to stadiums that already have them.

According to Fox Sports, the players say the cost of installing these natural grass fields would be no more than $3 million total.

Jeffrey Webb, president of North America's soccer governing body, CONCACAF, on Wednesday told attendees of a conference in London that the decision to play the tournament on artificial turf was "not a gender situation."

"It's more from when you look at various places in the Caribbean, and Canada, and the weather … I believe a good artificial pitch is better than a poor natural one," he said, according to Sports Illustrated. "I feel that artificial pitches are seen to be part of the future, and have been well-regarded."

(via Quartz)