On a Day Where US Women's Soccer Deserves the Soccer World's Attention, it Won't Get All of it.

FIFA. Or as the French like to call it, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, are to blame for the poor attention to detail given to the planning of their tournaments final matches. 

On the 15th of July in 2018, the Men’s World Cup Final took place in Luzhniki stadium Moscow, Russia. Absolutley no other soccer games, let alone finals, were scheduled to take place on that same day. Fast forward one year and the Women’s World Cup Final in Paris, France falls on the same day of not one major soccer final, but two. 

Brazil and Peru are scheduled to play in the Copa America Final, a tournament that sees South America’s national teams go at it for the continents most coveted prize, hours after the US Women received the World Cup trophy. Also, Mexico and the United States will go at it for the Gold Cup, a tournament that puts North and Central Americans to the test for Hemispheric dominance, later in the day as well. Keep in mind that both of these tournaments are men’s soccer tournaments. 

So what is so different from the men’s and women’s World Cup? The FIFA World Cup has been dubbed as the “greatest collective experience we have as a species” by Fox Soccer commentator John Strong, yet when it comes to Women’s World Cup’s, not too much attention is given. Now, understandably, there’s not nearly as many sponsors for women’s soccer in comparison to men’s soccer. Women’s soccer is still growing and it’s currently experiencing a surge of new fans across the globe. But FIFA, the soccer federation that has pushed for the growth of women’s soccer, looks hypocritical.

The 2019 Women’s World Cup Final match was determined before the finals of the Copa Americas and the Gold Cup. Let’s get that out of the way. Also, it’s understandable that some people may say that, “The Copa America and Gold Cup finals weren’t determined by FIFA, they were determined by CONCACAF and CONMEBOL”. Unfortunately, those people are wrong. Both CONCACAF and CONMEBOL are confederations of FIFA that manage the tournaments and matches for North America and South America respectively. 

All of the worlds soccer is connected to FIFA and for the federation to schedule two other final matches on the day of the World Cup, regardless of it being men’s or women’s, is, according to US Women’s soccer star Meghan Rapinoe, “ridiculous”. 

Last year, on July 15th, all that was talked about was France winning the World Cup for the first time since 1998. This year, on July 7th, the US Women’s soccer team will be talked about, but the focus will then shift to the Copa America and then the Gold Cup (in that order). 

And this is all thanks to the “brilliant” proactive planning of FIFA.