The tournament wasn’t just about teams and players. How so? Read on.
Winners
Video Assistance Referee: The Video Assistance Referee (VAR) system was used during the 2018 Men’s World Cup in Russia. With positive feedback from that experience, FIFA used it again in this year’s women’s tournament.
How’d it go? Of course, there were complaints about lengthy reviews and game interruptions. But VAR served the bottom line of getting correct calls on critical, potentially game-altering decisions. Let’s face reality: VAR is important for the future of the game.
Let’s drop the snark and accept the fact that VAR is here to stay.
United States Women’s National Team: Of course! America’s women were dominant once again. Forget about all the media fuss associated with that 13-0 whitewashing of Thailand. The U.S. women played some of the best teams in the world…and they won every single time. Just ask Sweden, England, France, and The Netherlands. Bravo, Red, White, and Blue!
Gender Pay Gap Conversation: FIFA generated $2.8 billion in 2018 with $400 million awarded to the winning nation in the men’s World Cup. Ladies? They got $30 million. Game on! Make it a short game, though. Get it fixed quickly and definitively, especially for the U.S. Women. Not only do the women generate big-time revenues, they are public stars, too. It’s not the 1980s, guys. Fix it! Now!
Losers
FIFA: If this were Hollywood, FIFA would have a lot of casting calls … the villain. The administrative issues (very kind of me to say, ‘eh? Let’s say ‘corruption’) doesn’t end. And on the basics, like marketing, FIFA does a piss-poor job. In FIFA’s mind, its job is to person the cash register, dole out bucks as it pleases, and play games (and I don’t mean soccer). Consider this. FIFA announced recently that the payout would double to $60 million to the winners of the 2023 women’s World Cup. But to do that it will expand tournament participation. How laughable!
It shows, once again, that only three things matter to FIFA–me, myself, and I. The flat-out truth is that FIFA is an embarrassment to the game and international athletics, as well. And, sadly for us all, the answer of how to fix FIFA seems to be as elusive as ever.
France: It was a golden opportunity for the Franch national team to shine and follow the lead of their male counterparts, winners of the 2018 Men’s World Cup. Led by Amandine Henry, Eugenie Le Sommer, and Wendie Renard, the French ladies had a well-balanced team capable of competing with –and beating–elite teams. But that didn’t happen. Ousted in the quarterfinals, the French didn’t play up to potential. To take next steps, France’s young stars–Delphine Cascarino and Sakina Karachaoui–will need to mature and step up. Make no mistake about it, 2023 is a red-letter year for the French women’s national team.
