Equal Footing

In May of two thousand and thirteen, the lords of Soccer gathered on the remote island nation of Mauritius off the coast of Africa for the sixty third FIFA Congress. The meeting opened with a sixteen minute long series of dazzling and colorful choreographed international music performances befitting of the most ambitious of Broadway shows. Then set Bladder was called

upon to officially open the meeting. Gives you a great pleasure and on a ladies and gentlemen, to now call upon the president of the organization that has been referred to as the guardian of our most precious game. The presidents of FIFA Joseph S. Blatter to officially welcome all of us yeah around of applause, describing set Bladder at that moment as the guardian of soccer was ironic at best. Welcome to the delegates to these sixty third Congress of FIFA.

On st bladders watch, FIFA had stumbled from scandal to scandal, and as president, Bladder was awfully close to the center of many of the accusations. As those bosses gathered in Mauritius, the stink of corruption had only grown stronger. In recent years. Bladder and FIFA felt grown in pressure to institute reforms or you know, at least look like they were. So. After one hundred and nine years, the lords of soccer decided it was time to allow women into the club.

The plan was to elect a few ladies, as Bladder like to say, to FIFA's executive Committee, and get a much needed public relations win. But Bladder, with his proclivity for making inappropriate comments, couldn't even execute this pr stunt. In his attempt to praise Australian Moya Dodd, one of the three female candidates up for election to FIFA's Executive Committee, Bladder found a way to offend. You have a Condi date and the good Condi date, and the good looking

Condi date. As Bladder giggled about Moya Dodd's looks, the camera cut to Maria Dodd, who maintained a stone like stair, you know, the type you put on when you're seething with rage inside, but you don't want to show it. And FIFA's president wasn't done putting his foot in his mouth, though sadly there's no audio of this moment. After Dodd, Lydia in Secara, and Sonya Benami were officially named to FIFA's Executive Committee, Bladder stood at the podium and yelled

say something, ladies. You're always speaking at home, Now you can speak here. It was typical Bladder and typical FIFA. Even when seeming to do the right thing, it became clear FIFA was doing it for all the wrong reasons. As a global nonprofit, FIFA's mandate is to support soccer around the globe, not just a men's game, but also the women's. Of course, it's always put the men's game first. FIFA did organize the first Women's World Championship tournament, in

sixty one years after the first Men's World Cup. That nineteen tournament has been described by some as a silent trigger, one that said in motion the modern women's game, and there's some truth to that. In two thousand and nineteen, more than a billion people around the world watched some of the Women's World Cup, and that is a massively forward compared to that tournament that was only carried live in China and on tape delay in the US. But the road to today's women's game is marked by decades

of sexism and shortsighted greediness. You're gonna hear about how FIFA created and maintains the system that has forced women to battle and claw for the scraps of FIFA's largest all while the lords of soccer enriched themselves. It was a run of the mill conference room, you know the type with rows of foldable chairs and tables call fee on the back. The room was full of sports apparel executives, everyone hoping to strike a deal. In the months before

the FIFA Women's World Championship. That nondescript conference room is where Michelle Acres found herself on a stage in Arizona, in front of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. I went and said, hey, we need your support. Years old. At the time, Acres was already one of the top women's players in the world, probably the best. At nearly six ft tall, Acres ruled the soccer pitch, playing as physically dominant a game as anyone man or woman in the sport.

Yet Acres was a virtual unknown. Support and commercial opportunities for the women's game were non existent. FIFA and its regional federations had ignored women's soccer for decades, and as a result, so did pretty much everyone else in the sport, especially the sports marketing and apparel companies. Even though the U S national team had just qualified for the World Championship in China a few months later, Acres was struggling financially,

like all the women in the sport. Acres bagged the suits in the room to support her, her teammates and Team America. She told me, she pleaded, please invest in women's soccer. We need us soccer. We need all the corporations and people in soccer to support our team because we're gonna go win a World Cup. And they laugh.

There was nothing funny about it, and nothing funny about how ill equipped in cash strapped the U S women's team was a few months before Acres launched her police for help, she and her team had traveled to Haiti

desperately poor, politically chaotic, and dangerously unsafe. Haiti, the Caribbean nation, was in the midst of year of political upheaval that included assassinations and coups, but Conka Calf, FIFA's North American Federation, shrugged off the dangers and decided to hold its qualifying matches for FIFA Women's World Championship on the troubled island. Acre says, it was as awful an experience as you

might expect. Even now, it's hard for me to believe anyone in soccer thought Haiti was an appropriate place to hold an international tournament, let alone the first women's qualifying tournament. We stayed at this hotel that was surrounded by really high cement wall, like maybe twenty ft high, with broken glass and stuff at the top. The water was off on and off all the time, electricity was on and off all the time, and of course you couldn't drink

the water. We basically jumped in the pool like after practices to shower. At this time, most of the top male soccer players in the world were earning millions in salaries and sponsorships. With a mere fifteen dollar a day per diem and a thousand dollars a month stipend, Acres and her teammates were literally playing for the love of the game and the flag on their chests. But as bad as the rundown hotel in Haiti was, the trip

to the stadium was even worse. We had these like they're kind of like those kind of tourists buses that hotels have that kind of take you from the airport to the you know, hotel. That's what we had to go to our games. So we're all stuffed on this bus thing, uh gelopi bus thing, and all our gear was like thrown on top of the bus like you

know Griswold station wagon. And we had guards hanging on the sides of the bus with these huge automatic weapons, and the people were like grabbing the bus and sucking the bus and shaking. It was so it was scary. Now FIFA treated all of the women's teams around the globe like garbage. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, there was no money for the women's game. But you might think that the U S team, based in the largest

economy in the world would be given additional resources. That's America, right, But they didn't. Everyone under FIFA's umbrella, from the regional organizations to the advertisers to the government, they all refused to cough up any money. And whatever American patriotism existed in that Arizona conference room, it didn't extend to the U S women's national team. Everyone ignored Acres except no one believed except for one guy. That one guy was

Mike Hoban, vice president of soccer promotions at Umbro. What's Umbro? If you're old enough, you might remember Umbro from your childhood. In the nineteen eighties, it seemed like everyone had a pair of their brightly colored nylon draw strings soccer shorts. After a mildly successful pro soccer career in the nineteen seventies, Hoban knew all about struggling financially to play the game you love, Mick Hoeban gave me his card and said,

I'm with Umbro. I want to sign you. Umbro, which sponsored the Brazilian legend Pelee, signed Acres to a major deal, the first ever for a female soccer player and for the first time in her career. Acre says she didn't have to worry about money. She wasn't rich, but she

wasn't struggling either. But but, but but she was literally the only woman in who could say that, and Acres his financial success was completely due to Mick Hoban's personal interest, not any of the lords of soccer who controlled the sport or anyone else. And it with the first FIFA Women's World Championship right around the corner, it looked like the safe might be cracking. The money men who had so long ignored the women's game might be ready to

make an investment. Welcome to China and a truly historic occasion. With Chinese pop music blaring, Tianni Stadium and the busy metropolis of quang Chu was buzzing. Sixty fans stopping, cheering and yelling, It had all the trappions of a World Cup final on the field. Pale always the ambassador for the beautiful game. Welcome the two teams. It's the FEBA Women's World Championship Final. For the eminem's gun, It's the

United States versus Norway. The presence of the greatest soccer player ever only added to the pageantry and spectacle of the moment. As the U S women took the pitch, their white Adida's uniforms gleamed under the stadium's lights. With the red and blue stripes, there was no doubt Team America had arrived. Look a little closer at the photos from the match, though, and you'll see how ill fitting

the uniforms really were. They were baggy and long. The sleeves were designed for athletes with far broader shoulders than any of the US players. Oh, there were guys uniforms. They were from the guys team. The US women's team were wearing hand me downs. The uniforms had once belonged to an American boys youth squad. It was the latest in a long line of slights and snubs for a team on the cusp of a world championship. But most

of Acre's teammates didn't care. She didn't really care. They were young and just happy to be playing, and they hand me down uniforms were, if you can believe it, a step up. Six years earlier, the US Soccer Federation gave Acres and her teammates mismatched and numberless men's practice jerseys for an international competition in Italy. We had to sew the patches on um US soccer patch. It was

just kind of here you go. FIFA had brought the eyes of the soccer world to southern China in the fall of Still it wasn't anywhere near the gusto reserved for the men's game. Remember, in nineteen FIFA demanded Argentina install a new color TV transmission system to make sure the World Cup and its sponsors looked perfect on TV. Thirteen years later, FIFA couldn't have cared less what the

women were wearing. Still, a tournament of this size for women and nominally backed by FIFA had never been attempted before. It was remarkable for an organization that had not just ignored the women's game, but, as the journalist Grant Wall points out, actively worked to undermine it for decades and decades,

FIFA his view women soccer with total disdain. Until the early nineteen eighties, FIFA had supported bands on women playing soccer, both professionally and recreationally in countries like the UK, Germany and Brazil. It's really shameful how long it took FIFA to get on board with women's soccer. Sexism has long been the status quo for the lords of soccer. By the mid nineteen eighties, that began to change ever so slightly when at the forty five FIFA Congress, Ellen Villy,

a Norwegian delegate, address soccer's governing body. She told FIFA to stop ignoring the women's game. Surprisingly, President Joel Havlange and General Secretary Set Bladder agreed. That's how the tournament came about. With communist China desperate to host an international sporting event and willing to put the cost. Havlang and Bladder saw a payday for FIFA up with little to no financial risk if it failed, which, let's be honest, the man of FIFA half expected it to. The candy

maker Mars signed on as the sole sponsor. Today's game is presented by Myers Milky Way Bar. Enjoy the smooth chocolate and caramel taste of the original Smoothie. It should come as no surprise that the chauvinistic, male dominated organization that is FIFA had some irrational concerns about women's biological sporting abilities. The man who ran FIFA thought the women should use a smaller ball, believing grown women incapable of

handling a regulation size one. That plan was ultimately scrapped, but FIFA did shorten the women's games from the traditional ninety minutes down to eighty one. US player joked at the time that FIFA was afraid their ovaries would fall out. U S goalkeeper Mary Harvey, who would later be come a senior FIFA official, never understood the decision. It didn't make sense. Why are we playing any minutes games? I played ninety minutes with my club. Why am I playing

eighty minutes here? And we are on the way as the blast ball flash? Really is what the side up. Throughout the tournament, the twelve teams dismantled the idea women were unable to play the sport at a high level. The final was no different. America's star forward Michelle Acres

is physical and aggressive style was particularly impressive. There we see Michelle a first golf Don't watch the so dangerous pour off the wall, fade on the ground and the newcapy figure jump high in the air, redirect the ball at the ball. What a fantastic goal. If you watch the games, you heard the commentators constantly reinforcing the idea that the women's game wasn't inferior, wasn't daintier, like so

many global soccer headlong belief place scrappy. Here in the opening stages of this second half, as Michelle is getting up off the ground, I believe it's the old knee making contact with face and that spencer. Certainly both the police that one bit, Both Norway and the US were proving just how wrong soccer's ruling elite had long been.

Seconds left in this World Championship when the final whistle blew, we wait simply for the whistle and the United States I finally won a World champions Jeff in soccer, and look at the chimlation chall le field. Back home, the U S women's team was hailed as heroes and we're quickly booked on pretty much every national TV show, and they were welcomed home with a New York City ticker tape parade. Yeah sorry, I might have gotten carried away a bit. That's what should have happened, But that's not

what happened. Let me see, Michelle Akers did score two goals, and they may Americans did win the tournament in China, that's true, but there was no ticker tape parade or TV network opportunities, just three journalists waiting for the team at New York's JFK Airport. Money Nope, no fifty million dollar payday like the men's champions Just five dollars for the players who are out of college. And they couldn't even claim a World Cup victory. FIFA refused to bestow

the title of World Cup on the women's tournament. No. Instead, they went with this ridiculous and no doubt financially lucrative title. It's the Feball Women's World Championship Finals for the Eminem's Gun. Did you catch that? The first ever FIFA Women's World Championship wasn't merely sponsored by Eminem's. The trophy was literally called the Eminem's Cup. Delectable chocolate morsels that never melt in your mouth. Eminem's maybe, but they are still candy.

It makes me want to throw up. But I also, you know, shake my head. I'm like, gosh, just you know, it's mind blowing, and but it's it's sort of um humiliating in one sence too, and also just it's an outrage to me. And but it's also like laughable. The trophy's name hardly seems appropriate, especially compared to the religious reverence the men's hardware has long been given. FIFA at least had the good sense the craft the trophy in the shape of a soccer ball instead of a miniature eminem.

But knowing FIFA, my guess is Mars just didn't pony up enough cash. Whatever outrage they felt at the name, Mary Harvey says she knew what she and her teammates had accomplished as far as I was concerned, we had won the World Cup. It just happened to be the Women's World Cup, and what FIFA chooses to call it or not call it was kind of their problem, not mine.

They were the type of parties where you sip top shelf liquor while standing underneath a ten ft ice sculpture and eating orders from a waitress that would be on the cover of some fashion magazine in a few months. These are the types of parties FIFA is known for, and the types of parties Michelle Acres found herself attending following Team America's victory that would be at these World Cups or men's events and being treated kind of like Royalty as the best women's soccer player in the world

and with an Umbro deal to prove it. Acres was soccer Royalty, robbing elbows with the sports ruling elite as they enjoyed the gluttony of FIFA's empire. Acres knew all of the lords of soccer, most of them by first name, Jal Horse, Franz, Chuck, and of course Sep. I would be wearing a dress and you know, all these black tie things, and they would stand there and look me up and down, and then step he would come over and he'd extend his hand and oh, Michelle, you look

so lovely. Can we see more? The leering, the suggestive comments, the demeaning questions, they were all features of life inside of FIFA's inner circle. I'm in the room and this is their culture. So I accepted that part of it to be in their culture to try and change it. Access to the room, as Acres described it, allowed her to see FIFA's outrageous wealth and culture up close, and how it's fortune was shared with the men of the sport. I started seeing everything the guys had and then what

we had. And when I said okay, well, we're going to have that, and I didn't talk about it with my team. I just did it. When it came to funding the wins game, FIFA showed little interest in spreading the wealth. It wasn't recruiting long term sponsors or cultivating corporate partners like it was doing on the men's side. US Soccer mimic FIFA's position, insisting it couldn't sell interest in the women's game. The sponsorship opportunities, they said over

and over, just weren't there. And yet American officials still demanded US female soccer players where Adida's gear at all times without providing it like they did for the men. The women were trapped in a contractual relationship that didn't provide them with basic equipment and at the same time limited their ability to pursue outside sponsorships. I said, guys, they should be giving us cleats. If they're not going to give us cleats, then they can't demand we wear

a brand. When I signed with Umbro, I came into camp wearing Umbro stuff because they didn't give us anything to wear. Then US Soccer got mad and said, no, you can't do that, and I said, yes, I can then give us gear to wear off the field, Whispers that Acres was difficult A troublemaker soon followed. Younger teammates, many of whom were still in college, were urged by male US officials to keep their distance. God help them, don't go near her, because you don't want any of

that rubbing off on you. Acres the line of attack went wasn't standing up for her teammates, but selfishly promoting her own Umbro contract over US Soccers deal with Adidas. There was blowout from my team to me about that. It was sort of seen as this, yeah, selfish kind of act, rubbing in their face act, when it really wasn't. As Women's World Cup approached, this have versus have not competition, encouraged by the wealthy leaders of FIFA, would begin to

undermine Team USA's asked for a repeat championship. It was just ten minutes into the much anticipated rematch, so it's been a branch start for the Norwegians. When Norway's growth set maneuvered and adjusted the ball ever so slightly along the white corner arc, lining up a shot in the opening minutes of the FIFA Women's World Cup semi final, you could hear the importance of the moment as the Americans set their defense against Norway's corner kick or what

a cola cake throw espath will take it? That you could even hear the Americans talking so clearly in Sweden's ros Valen Stadium is still surprising to me. To this dick, what's the difficult one for the don't keeper? And it said brow I had laid, I think it's It was the biggest rivalry in FIFA's blossoming Women's World Cup tournament, and the Swedish stadium was basically empty. The four thousand or so spectators on hand were a far cry from the sixty thousand who saw the US and Norraway play

in China four years earlier. If championship for the Eminem's Cup was a massive step forward for the women's game, tournament was easily two steps back, not only for the U S side, which lost to their arch nemesis Norway in the semifinals and the USA find themselves a girl behind, but also for the women's game in general. Gone were the pack Chinese stadiums were placed instead by a few hundred family and friends in near empty Swedish venues. FIFA had done little to invest in or grow the women's

game in the four years between the tournaments. In front of the camera set Bladder love to praise the women's game. The development of women's football since nine is tremendous. The future of football will be feminine, and FIFA conferred the title of a World Cup on the tournament, but not

much Ellens had improved. The US star Mia Ham joined Michelle Eacres with a massive endorsement deal, landing Nike as her financial backer, but the economics of the sport on the whole still sucked for female soccer players in both the US and around the world. Soccer was no road to riches. It remains an economic sacrifice. Only a select few were paid anything but a measly per diem. Women's World Cup champions Norway received a ten thousand dollar a

year stipend from the Norwegian Soccer Federation. That's it. One of their top players, Linda Madalin, survived by making a living as a part time private investigator, earning the nickname the Magnum p i of international soccer. And it was just as bad for the Americans. Most of them were still largely living off of their meager daily food per diem at a thirty dollar a day stipend his compensation

for lost wages. America in Norway were the two biggest brands in women's soccer, and they were playing too empty seats and paint out of their own pockets to do it. Behind the scenes, the women's team were pressing for a new labor contract with US Soccer, and this is why the team said they lost. They were too focused on fighting for better treatment to focus on the game. As the Olympics approached, the leaders of the women's national team said they would not go to Atlanta without first inking

a better financial deal. Even before the fax machine started eeping and slowly churning out the offer sheet, the stars of the U S women's national team knew what it would say. Michelle Acres, Mia Ham, Julie Faulty, Christine Lily and Joy Faucet had been negotiating, really battling with soccer officials for better resources for nearly a decade. Akers remembers, we just want to be the best in the world.

We want to have the best coaches, we want to have the best training environments, we want to have the best gear. We want to play in the best tournaments. We want to develop as athletes, we want that same opportunity. So to me, it was all about gaining equal access to that. But this offer, now staring them in black and white, was as disappointing as it was unacceptable. Win gold at Atlanta Olympics or get nothing, no bonus for silver,

and certainly no money for bronze. It was in stark contrast to the men's deal, which paid out bonuses for each win, and the men they weren't even expected to meddle. Olympics may not have officially been a FIFA event, but US Soccer was a FIFA member. The decision by the Lords of Soccer to limit financial support to the women's game set the tone for all soccer federations. It allowed you a soccer to cry poverty when it came to the women's team, while at the same time ramping up

spending on the men's side. It was a particularly unequal system since the US women's side had established itself as the premier team in the world. Former U S goalkeeper Mary Harvey says the team felt second class. It hurts sometimes when we saw things that, you know, no matter what kind of what we did, we didn't see the economic benefit of it. By the time the contract offer

came in, Acres and her teammates had had enough. We need, you know, basic things that the men's team had had for a long time, and US Soccer said no. With the Atlanta Olympics just months away, for the first time, the US women had leverage, their leverage the star players, Mary Harvey remembers they took the lead in the negotiations. The players who were starting, players who had more leverage than the rest of us. Did this on behalf of all of us because they wanted us to have better conditions.

Starting midfielder Julie Faudy reviewed the offer. She crossed out the Olympic bonus, clauses and facts back the contract. The message was simple, do better pay us what we're worth. Like FIFA, US Soccer had never really contemplated what women's soccer was worth. The women's side was viewed as a financial drain, and so in retaliation for using its offer, US Soccer canceled the team's flights to an upcoming training camp, locking out the nine most important players on the U

S women's team. US Soccer then went on the offensive in the media, attacking the stars of the team. They tried everything they could to demean us and basically called us little girls. The women held strong. US Soccer wanted gold, they needed it, and eventually they caved a green, not only to provide bonuses for gold, silver, and bronze, but also agreeing to provide pregnancy leave and nanny's for players with small children. US Soccer realized they couldn't bully us

are intimidate. It was going to be a bigger game than just these little girls acting out. This is going to be a legal battle against giants. Ironically, US Soccer was rewarded with something far later than just a gold medal, which the US women won. Seventy six thousand rabbid and passionate fans were on hand to watch the US women's game, proving there was a gigantic, untapped market for women's soccer. Here's Mary Harvey. We weren't a curtain raiser, we were

the event. That's a big deal, and people was there. FIFA saw that. On June the traffic on the Jersey Turnpike was brutal, even worse than usual. When Team USA's bus did move, it was only a few feet at a time. Jolting forward and then jerking to a stop. The team was anxious to get to New Jersey's Meadowlands Stadium for the first game of the World Cup. They had spent the last year training and doing every TV interview and commercial they could to sell ticket and build anticipation.

Corporate America had noticed, and the stars of the team were everywhere. I could be champion of Women's World Cup Soccer. I can be a goal like soccer or power power. Are you ready for Women's World Cup Soccer? Brought to you by Blood Light. After the heroics of the Olympics, interest in women's soccer had surged. FIFA, however, remain skeptical that a Women's World Cup could attract global attention. So we were up against the prejudice, an old way of thinking.

That's Donna Dave Verona, a former Olympic swimmer and chair of the Women's World Cup organizing Committee. That's skepticism from FIFA weighed on the players who remembered the empty stadiums four years earlier in Sweden. As they pulled into the Meadowlands parking lot. They couldn't believe their eyes. Americans are cheering on this team in this sport unlike just about

any other. They heard the screams of go USA and of we love you, Mia, Mia worship, and then saw thousands of fans primed and ready to go, young girls and white women's jerseys, not just soccer moms and their kids attending games, teenage boys with their shirts off and Team USA painted across their chests. Take by the opening match was a sellout. Seventy seven thousand fans filled the stadium, and the excitement only grew as Team USA kept scoring

Christy in winning. In the summer of the sports world was consumed by the Women's World Cup, not just the U S team, but the entire slate of matches. The average attendance for the thirty two games was thirty seven thousand fans, with more than seventy eight thousand on hand to watch Mexico in Brazil. By comparison, a year earlier in France, the average attendance at the Men's World Cup

was roughly forty three thousand people per match. By any measure, this was a success, But these crowds at Women's World Cup, they almost didn't happen. The international organization that governed soccer, FIFA, George stadiums would be half empty. Stephen Vanderpool, the head of media relations for the Women's World Cup, told me FIFA didn't believe there was any real interest. FIFA envisioned a smaller event, a tournament that was held in smaller stadiums,

basically in the eastern part of the United States. Thankfully, the people that were involved with the big committee for the Women's World Cup and the people that ran it had worked on the ninety World Cup for the men and knew what was possible. FIFA didn't believe women's soccer players could draw sizeable crowds. The lords of soccer wanted a safe event in small five to ten thousand seed stadiums, definitely not New Jersey's massive meadowlands or California's Grand Canyon

like Rose Bowl. World Cup organizers like Donna Dave Verona instead bet big and ignored FIVA, believing the interest was there. I think it has to do with chauvinism and the fact that the FIFA membership wants to protect the men's game, and some of them felt if the women encroach on the game, it somehow undermines the credibility of the men's game. FIFA didn't argue or try to stop them, but they

didn't do much to help either. The American public believed in US, but a lot of the top sponsors didn't. Even as ticket sales were steadily growing in the months before the opening game, FIFA's powerful marketing arm once again stayed on the sidelines, unwilling to help the women's brand, and let's be honest, probably leaving money on the table. We had to really struggle with the sponsors to get them to activate the sponsorship. Many didn't. They just didn't

believe we could do it. Some global brands like McDonalds, Fuji, and Gillette ultimately did sign up as advertisers, but reluctantly, and even when they did sign sponsorship deals, they went small. That was a mistake, Vanderpool says. When we sold out the opening game, I think it was such an eye opener to everybody in the world. By the time the tournament got underway, the brench of World Cup fever has

reached a crescendo. In just three short weeks. Everyone was scrambling to find ways to ride the wave of anticipation. Even ESPN and ABC, FIFA's official broadcast partners, had to rework their TV schedules to capitalize on the interests. This is the biggest game in the lives of these USA players, and you could say that for China to US an what in front of a record ninety thousand fans Women's

World Cup Final was nothing short of extraordinary. Acres Michelle Acres cuts to land, but it's right at Gohl and yes she can score from there. Exciting, hard fought one hundred and twenty minutes of utterly gripping athleticism, played under the hot California's son and the historic Rose Bowl Stadium, and it would end in one of the most spectacular moments in sports history. Refereece just looked at the watch. That's it the winner. I'll be Women's World Cup will

be sited on pedalt kicks. When the whistle blew, the game was tied nil nil, one by one China in the US came to the line to take their penalty kicks. They found themselves tied once again, four to four, with a single US player left to take her shot. Chat Stain will take it. She missed a penalty kick against

charlat Pump and they lost that air. Then Brandy Chastain just drilled the penalty kick past China's golding Chastain, sprinted and then dropped to her knees, ripping off her jersey and flexing her arms in an explosion of pure celebration. It is to this day one of the most iconic moments, not just in women's sports, but in all of sports.

Women's World Cup was a success. It's set records and both live attendance and TV audience, and it even turned a profit of four million dollars on a paltry thirty million dollar budget. Still, while FIFA President Set Bladder was ecstatic, Donna Dave Verona said some FIFA members still refused to believe there was a market for women's soccer outside of the US. They wouldn't believe their own eyes. Some of the FIFA members says, after we sold it out and

it was so exciting. Not in my country. This is not going to happen in my country. The photos had all the blood and gore of a crime scene. In one photo, shins with the skin sheared off. In another, a once white Nike sock saturated with blood from knee to ankle. The photos had been tweeted out in two thousand and thirteen by American Sydney LaRue in Australian Sam Kerr, two of the best female soccer players in the world. To say they were angry, it would be an understatement.

Some of the world's top female soccer players are fuming they may have to play on artificial grass and next year's Women's World Cup finals in Canada. Canada had been awarded the upcoming two thousand and fifteen Women's World Cup and FIFA had approved a decision to play most of the games not on grass but on synthetic skin ripping, blood inducing plastic turf. Players like all time leading US score Abby Wombach were piste and speaking out should be

grass names, not blood. It was almost twenty five years since the first women's tournament in China, and once again the women's side was having to speak out about unequal treatment. The stars of the women's game rightfully argued that men would never be subjected to a plane surface as harsh as turf. It is a gender equality issue. No chance would the men ever play a World Cup on turf, and I think that the women are being treated as

guinea pigs. FIVA remained unmoved by the social media pressure, and in two thousand and fourteen, eighty one players from more than a dozen countries sued FIFA in the Canadian Soccer Federation for gender discrimination. It was the type of bad pr FIFA's embattled but all powerful president set Bladders didn't need, with the rumors of vote buying, bribery and corruption and a US federal probe swirling around, and there

was an easy fix. For a couple of million dollars, Canada's skin ripping artificial fields could be retrofitted and replaced by soft, lush, safe grass. FIFA had made a profit of four billion dollars on the previous two thousand and fourteen Men's World Cup in Brazil and had billions in the bank. Money wasn't the issue. Sexism was. The Men's World Cup was given brand new stadiums, brand new venues around Brazil, and all we're asking is for a great

circuit plan. Fighting the women on this issue seems such a tone deaf, short sighted decision, especially for Bladder, who had long prided himself as the original supporter inside FIFA of the women's game. Women's football is definitely my wouldn't say my baby, but I considered myself a little bit as a good father of the organization of women's football in FIFA. As an organization, FIFA had spent most of

the last four decades short changing the women's game. Still, Mary Harvey, the U S women's goalie in the early who lived through years of pathetic resources, remembers as often the lone voice of support for the women's competition. You know, I saw Bladder do some things that helped advance woman's football. After her playing career wrapped up, Harvey joined FIFA in two thousand and three as the Director of Development and remembers pushing for the creation of an under seventeen women's

World Cup like the men had. I went into the President's office and lobbied for it. Bladder not only listened, but decided seemingly unilaterally to follow Harvey's advice and announced his decision at an executive committee meeting. We're doing this. Anybody object when the FIFA president says that, right, who's dumb enough to actually open their mouth and say something? Answers nobody, But I mean that's an example of where

he said we're doing this. Donna Dave Verona, the chair of Women's World Cup, also remembers Bladder as someone who could plant a seed of an idea within FIFA and make it happen. Step had his negative aspects, but he he was a vision narry. He wasn't afraid to say that stuff. So he planted a seed. But were they going to be a thousand percent behind it and put

the money where the math is? No. At the same time, Bladder would also make public comments that would undermine the women's game, as he did in two thousand and four. Recently he was asked how should women's soccer be made more popular? He said, well, they should wear shorts or shorts. If Bladder and FIFA wanted to make the changes to Canada's field turf, it would have happened, but it didn't, and instead FIFA threatened to suspend any player who challenged

in court FIFA's artificial turf mandate. The women dropped the lawsuit and FIFA agreed in the future never to host a tournament on artificial grass. It was a small consolation for the players who still had to face plastic fields and bloody kneecaps. After seventeen years at the helm of international soccer, it's hard to know where set Bladder begins and FIFA ends. The two had been intimately linked for decades.

FIFA was his baby. Nowhere was this more true, says journalist Grant Wall, than on the women's side of the sport. He takes a lot of pride in the role that he had and created the first Women's World Cup hosted by FIFA. But FIFA had done a terrible job with women's soccer over the decades. Then, almost overnight, Bladder was gone, pushed out by the sports sponsors in two thousand and fifteen, under a shadow of corruption. FIFA president Set Bladder has resigned.

With Bladder gone, and after more than a dozen senior soccer officials were indicted by the U S Department of Justice, there was optimism this would lead to a new attitude within FIFA on issues of equality. Former U S star turned TV analyst Julie Foudy tweeted, quote, Hallelujah, Set Bladder is out. Unquote. The US star Carly Lloyd was optimistic that decades of sexism and organizational inequality might soon be

a thing of the past. I think it's going to be really really good for our game, and I think the next leader um person in charge really needs to step in and create equal rights for men and women. FIFA does have a new human rights policy and a female General secretary. However, when Bladder's replacement, Gianni Infantino, stepped forward to present the US women their World Cup trophy in France in two thousand nineteen, a deluge of booze rained down on him. Fans were angry at the seemingly endless,

crappy treatment women suffered at FIFA's hands. Little it seems has changed. Corruption is still a problem at FIFA, and as Mary Harvey pointed out, it's not just what the corrupt FIFA members did with the money, that's what they didn't do. I mean, I got pretty angry because you've been told your whole life women's football candid this, or you can't have that because there's no money. And then one day you lift the veil and see what people were doing with the money. It makes you pretty angry.

As journalist Grant Wall explains, the issues of inequality within FIFA remain pronounced. The legacy of all of that is still there today, where FIFA likes to say it's enlightened today about women's soccer, but these entrenched attitudes from men inside FIFA towards the sport of women's soccer are still there. I'm told FIFA has significantly increased the prize money for the women's game, setting aside thirty million dollars for the

two thousand and nineteen Women's World Cup. As the winners, the US team walked away with a four million dollar pay day, more than double the two thousand fifteen award and a massive step forward from the pay to play days of their es, but it's still a paltry amount compared to the men whose prize pool in two thousand and eighteen was four hundred million dollars, with the French team earning a staggering thirty eight million dollars for its victory.

FIFA's attitude has long been the men's World Cup makes more money and they should enjoy a larger payday. However, FIFA is a nonprofit and it's mandate is the support soccer around the world. That mandate doesn't distinguish between the men's game and the women's game. Increasingly, FIFA is out of step with the sporting world. Many other nonprofits that oversee both men's and women's sports, particularly in tennis, I've already started to even out prize money Wimbledon, the French Open,

the US Open. There's a business case to be made to invest more in women's soccer. The Men's World Cup is likely only to grow incrementally in the future. It's already a ratings behemoth. However, there's a lot of growth left on the women's side. Want proof. In two thousand and twenty two, fans crowded into camp No Stadium in Barcelona for a semifinal match between Barcelona and Wolfsburg, breaking the record set back in at the Women's World Cup final.

Barcelona FC has poured money into their women's team and the results speak for themselves. Serious investment by others would likely lead to greater revenues, which FIFA should one. There's still a lot of frustration in the women's soccer community that not only did FIFA not support women soccer for decades, there's still not doing nearly enough to make the Women's World Cup into the type of money making extravaganza that

they did with the Men's World Cup. However, Gianni Infantino is just as dismissed of the women's game as his predecessors were defending the pay and balance by sarcastically saying maybe one day women's football will generate more than men's football. Not only is that unlikely to happen given the sheer popularity of a men's game, but FIFA and its regional partners around the world are still actively working to prevent

any real investment in the women's sport. Local federations like Conka, Caffe or come Bowl or only asked to spend fIF of the nine million dollar global development budget on the women's game. Mary Harvey, the former US goalie and FIFA development official, belies FIFA should have treated the women's game in the late nine nineties similar to a growth stock like Google or Amazon. I think it could be much bigger, or it could have been bigger faster if maybe it

had been treated as a high growth opportunity earlier. FIFA, though a humble nonprofit on paper, has proven at the end of the day, it cares most about maximizing profit, so it's never too late to embrace that investment strategy. It's very clear that FIFA is leaving money on the table. They haven't maximized what's out there potentially for the Women's World Cup and in the sport on a regular basis.

I think Mary Harvey said it best. A corrupt organization busy stuffing money into its suit pockets is not investing wisely in the future. But that can change. The potential growth on the women's side is not just in revenue, but in goodwill, in karma. FIFA, bruised and battered by scandal, has a chance to do the right thing in a global way. That's not just good public relations, it's just playing good and that, more than anything, is what the beautiful game needs now. And the thing is, the calls

for change aren't going to stop. In February of two thousand and twenty two, US Soccer and the women's national team reached an agreement to pay four million dollars in back pay and to close the pay gap between the

men's and women's sides. The agreement settles a gender discrimination lawsuit filed in two thousand and nineteen, and it puts the onus on FIFA to either equalize pay between the men's and women's teams or force the US men's side to take a pay cut to make up the gap, though it remains to be seen how this will play out. This kind of pressure is needed, Michelle Laker says, to force FIFA to reckon with its past discrimination of women.

They should be uncomfortable, they should change, and I shouldn't have to ask for that. Change doesn't happen unless it makes people uncomfortable, unless it's demanded, unless it's radicalized. Almost you have to force change. You can't be nice about asking for equality. For me to even say ask for equality is just ridiculous. On the next episode of the Lords of Soccer, the eyes of the world are on Qatar, the host of the two thousand and twenty two Men's

World Cup. The tiny nation is furiously building infrastructure to handle the tournament, but at a horrific cost. Is FIFA ready to own up to the scandal in the desert? The Lords of Soccer, How FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell. Logan Heftel and Katie mcmurran provided the sound design with assistance from j. C.

Swaddick and Jake blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer, and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Fact checker is Alexa O'Brien, and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any comments or questions, please reach out. You can find us on Twitter. I'm at Connor M. Powell and Gary is at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any stories about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear, please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords of Soccer