In the face of tremendous success of the Men's 2014 World Cup, FIFA has decided to relegate the female athletes of the 2015 Women's World Cup to second-tier status, by providing athletic facilities using only artificial turf instead of natural grass. As many athletes with career-ending injuries can attest to, artificial playing surfaces do not provide as functional a playing surface as natural grass.
The US Women's National Soccer team is one of the greatest success stories in our nation's recent history, and the decision by FIFA to explicitly demean the value of our female athletes by relegating them to second class facilities sends the horrific message that women are second-class athletes, citizens, and human beings.