Sexism in soccer. Yep it's the real deal.

At the esteemed Harvard University, in 2012 the male soccer team was suspended for making a "scouting report" which was a nine page document with a picture of each female player with comments on the side by the male players. In the comments they judged the women's attractiveness and labeled them with some potential sexual positions. They also assigned each of the females with a number grade and described their bodies. And they also compared women to each other and previous players on the team. And even though they were suspended from playing in the NCAA tournament that year and having serious repercussions for this report that they published in the Harvard student newspaper, it continued into 2016 with a brand new team and the men have absolutely no shame in admitting it or even having the guts to apologize. Even after all of this had happened to the female players, they "responded to the Crimson original story by condemning the "report" but ultimately forgave the men's team for their actions." (The Harvard Crimson 11-4-16)

That happened at a University level, but in National Soccer sexism is EVERYWHERE, in small ways but are making a huge impact and becoming a burden for women's national teams. To give some background context to the problem, let's introduce the organization that created the mess. FIFA is the world's foremost governing body that is associated with soccer or in most countries football. They have lately gone through hiring a new president and many higher positions as they have been recently found to being corrupt in the uses of money with tax frauds. But, the former president who has considered himself the "Godfather" of women's soccer said this sexist comment, "They could, for example, have tighter shorts. Female players are pretty, if you excuse me for saying so, and they already have some different rules to men such as playing with a lighter ball. That decision was taken to create more female aesthetic, so why not do it in fashion?" (Bostino, Street Wise) First of all, women use the same weight of the ball as the men do so get educated Mr. Former President. So this is a real actual problem of sexism in national soccer and the women need to treated equally in every aspect as the men do. This includes the following, funding, salaries and how they are portrayed.

So the first problem is funding. In the 2014 Brazil World Cup for the men, it was perfectly okay for them to spend $11.2 billion on it but the next year in 2015 in Canada for the women's world cup they barely had enough funding and had such awful organization attention that they were forced to play completely on turf venues. Now, if you don't know turf is very dangerous (it's not even real grass) and it enhances injuries and it largely effects the the outcomes of all of the games. A lawsuit was filed, but FIFA even having the open to change to open grass fields ultimately decided not to pursue it and the lawsuit was dropped. This funding issue is something that should be looked into as FIFA is clearly being biased but they say that it is because men's soccer is just more popular, so why put funds and invest into something that is less popular?



The second problem women are faced with is salaries. This chart is of the how the USA women and men are paid is just one example of what is happening to national teams all over the world. As you can see by this chart that it is not a couple dollars of differences in payment but thousands of dollars. Another example of this problem is in the prize money for winning the world cup. So, in 2015 the winning team which was the USA received $2 million but in 2014 for the men, Germany was awarded $35 million. "In total, prize money for the women's version of the event is set at $15 million. Meanwhile, the men's teams receive $358 million." (Bostinno, Street Wise) And no that is not a typing error. The women again have taken action on the problem. In the USA as 5 players on the behalf of the whole team, filed a complaint against the U.S. Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They felt discriminated because they get paid less than the players on the men's national team. They also claim that they "receive less money for daily expenses while traveling, despite the fact that they play more games than the men's team and have a better winning record." The claim was of course disputed and it was said in the report that, "they paid the five players who brought the complaint over $3 million from 2012-2015 which was more than the top five men." (Money CNN)

Money for the women's organization is currently being "closely monitored to ensure that money is going where it should" said FIFA. FIFA's senior women's football development manager said this about the monitoring and funding, "we commit 15% to women's programs.. and that number is an encouragement and that 117 countries invest over $38 million in the women's game annually." "In 2004, it started at 5%...at that time there was not so much interest but interest has grown and we have obviously increased that." (Reuters)

So, yes, there is things happening to fix these problems which is good but there is still things in the money side of things that FIFA can more fully address.

Now the final problem that sexist voices need to quiet down on is the how men and women are portrayed with these well known role models.


First is Lionel Messi. #1 soccer player in the world with 500 goals in his career, the youngest player at 22 to receive an esteemed award 4 years in a row. Even with earning $70 million a year is known for being one of the most humble players and also came from very humble beginnings. He is highly respected with his skills and his sportsmanship. He has had some faults with almost going to jail for tax evasion but other than that, he has a clean slate and really isn't discriminated or hated. This is how the media portrays him.




Second is Hope Solo. Has a net worth of 2.5 million, won 7 awards in her career, and one of the top women goalkeepers in the world. Well she has also been arrested for sexual assault on her step sister and nephew, banned from the us national team for disorderly conduct (poor sportsmanship) towards the Netherlands national team that they had lost to and were kicked out of the tournament. But worst of all, she has not been paying her taxes on anything profit she has made and has been blatantly lying about it.


Do you see the difference? Now yes there is sexism that is clearly shown in this, but that is not to excuse for Solo's or even Messi's actions especially Solo's. But it is the way that it is being stated. For instance, changing one word in a sentence to make someone's statement mean something completely different and it hops around the internet and first human reaction is judgement on the person just by that one incident. Just like gossip in a group of teenagers that go to high school.

Sexism overall isn't something that is going to go away anytime soon but starting little by little with it being in soccer it can spread throughout every situation.

The call to action has come! Show your support by going to the website below and learn more about sexism in sports for female athletes in the media."Sexist commentary, inappropriate interview questions, and articles focused on physical appearance not only trivializes a women's accomplishments, but also sends a message that her value is based on her looks, not her ability. And its much too commonplace." They have a call to action which I hope you take also. "It's time to demand media coverage that focuses on the athlete. Send a message to a major news network or your local network and ask them to #CoverTheAthlete."

Cover the Athlete website: http://covertheathlete.com/




Links:

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/11/4/soccer-suspended-scouting-report-harvard/?utm_source=thecrimson&utm_medium=web_primary&utm_campaign=recommend

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/10/29/oped-soccer-report/

http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/07/01/fifa-funding-for-womens-world-cup-vs-mens-tournament-data/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-soccer-women-money-idUSKBN0P601L20150626

http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/03/news/us-womens-soccer-equal-pay-eeoc/