No FIFA Men's World Cup game has been played on artificial turf since 1994. In fact there are very few men's international and premier players who would find it remotely acceptable to play on artificial turf fields for friendly games or even just practice. Why then do the world's best women's soccer players have to "just deal with" their entire 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup being played on turf fields? After demands and threats of lawsuits from top players and supporters continue to go unanswered, the excuses from FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association seem simply to be that it is too expensive and that it will take too long to install the grass fields. There's some problems with those excuses. Bush Turf (a turf company) needed less than 72 hours this month to lay grass over the artificial turf at Michigan Stadium for a friendly between Manchester United and Real Madrid. One other example, of many: a company laid grass at Edward Jones Field in St. Louis in May for a pre-World Cup friendly between Ivory Coast and Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Anytime premier teams play in the United States, they won’t play on artificial turf,” Steve Bush of Bush Turf said. “They’re very picky, so this type of thing, going from turf to grass in a short period of time, happens all the time, all over the country.” Why was it done? Because top men's players demanded it. Financial inability may also be a shakey excuse, being that FIFA made roughly 2 billion dollars this summer from the Men's World Cup in Brazil. Therefore, it doesn't seem irrational for FIFA to contribute the 2 million dollars that it may cost to give these women's players what they want just like they do for the men. After all, Trey Rogers a professor of turf grass management said that "FIFA spent about $2 million on the Silverdome project (for the Men's World Cup) in 1994 and didn’t blink an eye."

Anyone who has ever played or even walked on turf may have noticed the intense heat that radiates out of it and burns your feet after its been soaking up the sun's rays all day. They may have felt the sting and pain of a scrape/turf burn after sliding or falling on a turf field. Or even may know what it's like to have these wounds continue to get deeper and more painful after falling or sliding again and again. I've seen and suffered from wounds that are nearly debilitating. All because of turf fields. Even if you have personally experienced none of this, there is another very important issue that affects us all in the midst of this problem: the unequal treatment of women. Why should the demands of women for basic equal treatment in the sport continue to go unmet? These players deserve to have the safest and best environments possible in order to perform to the best of their abilities. It's time to demand that FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association step up and provide grass-only soccer fields for the 2015 Women's World Cup. Thank you for your support.