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Le monde se prépare à la Coupe du monde de football féminin, qui débutera le 20 juillet et se poursuivra jusqu’au 20 août, et qui sera organisée par l’Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande.
Ce tournoi historique réunira pour la première fois 32 nations.
Mais la Coupe du monde de football féminin a suscité un autre type d’engouement, en raison d’une série de controverses qui ont jeté une ombre sur l’événement.
Voici un résumé de ce qu’il faut savoir.
1) Il y a eu une mutinerie dans l’équipe espagnole
L’Espagne participera à la Coupe du monde sans certains de ses joueurs les plus talentueux. 15 joueurs ont écrit à la Fédération espagnole de football parce qu’ils n’étaient pas satisfaits de leurs conditions de travail.
Les joueurs ont déclaré qu’ils démissionneraient de l’équipe nationale si des changements n’étaient pas apportés pour améliorer « notre état émotionnel et personnel », selon Yahoo !
En septembre 2022, les footballeuses espagnoles ont démissionné à cause de ce qu’elles appelaient un entraîneur « dictatorial », en référence à l’entraîneur principal Jorge Vilda.
Il a été rapporté que ces démissions temporaires sont intervenues quelques semaines après que quelques stars espagnoles aient demandé à l’entraîneur principal Jorge Vilda de démissionner et au président de la RFEF, Luis Rubiales, de renvoyer Vilda. Les deux hommes auraient refusé.
La fédération a réagi en publiant la déclaration suivante :
« Nous n’allons pas permettre aux joueurs de remettre en question la continuité de l’entraîneur national et de son équipe d’entraîneurs, car la prise de ces décisions ne relève pas de leurs compétences. La Fédération n’admettra aucun type de pression de la part d’un joueur lors de l’adoption de mesures sportives. Ce type de manœuvres est loin d’être exemplaire et en dehors des valeurs du football et du sport ».
M. Vilda a déclaré qu’il n’avait pas l’intention de démissionner. « Je ne souhaite à personne de vivre ce que je vis ces jours-ci », a-t-il déclaré l’année dernière. « Je suis profondément blessé, c’est une situation injuste que personne ne mérite.
Trois des joueuses qui ont signé la lettre se sont retrouvées sur la liste de la Coupe du monde : Aitana Bonmatí et Mariona Caldentey, qui jouent à Barcelone, et Ona Batlle, de Manchester United.
Spain will face Costa Rica, Zambia, and Japan in Group C in New Zealand and “will still suit up Alexia Putellas, the reigning winner of the Ballon d’Or—given annually to the world’s best player.”
It was reported that many marquee players—such as Mapi León, from Champions League winner Barcelona—will not go to the World Cup. “It will really piss me off not to go to the World Cup,” León was quoted as saying this past March. “But my values come first.”
2) Player revolt has been a pattern…
In February, France captain Wendie Renard, who is a star defender for the team, said she would skip the World Cup “to protect” her mental health, TIME.com reported recently.
Renard wrote the following in a statement:
“My face may hide the pain but my heart is suffering … and I don’t want to suffer any more. Thank you for your support and for respecting my decision.”
French striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto and forward Kadidiatou Diani also said they wouldn’t suit up for the World Cup, as per TIME.com.
What exactly was at the root of the issue?
Players had a problem with the leadership style of national team coach Corinne Diacre. Apparently Diacre had stripped Renard of her captaincy back in 2017, claiming she did not play as well for France as she did for Lyon. In 2021, Diacre reinstated Renard as captain.
It was also reported that French midfielder Amandine Henry—who will miss this World Cup due to a calf injury—said the tense atmosphere caused her and other players to cry in their rooms during the 2019 tournament.
After Renard made her statement, the French federation president, Philippe Diallo, formed a four-person panel to investigate the team’s culture.
The panel assessed that “the malfunctions observed seem, in this context, irreversible.” Diacre was let go in March.
“Hervé Renard (no relation to Wendie), who led Saudi Arabia to a stunning upset victory over Argentina at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar—and who won Africa Cup of Nations titles as coach of men’s teams in Zambia (2012) and Côte d’Ivoire (2015)—was hired to replace Diacre,” TIME.com reported.
Wendi Renard and Diani are on France’s World Cup roster. “Without unity, we can’t achieve anything – I insist on that all the time, and it’ll always be my guiding principle,” Hervé Renard told FIFA.com in a recent interview. “No one can be outside this framework, and no one is above the national team.”
3) With only days to go before the World Cup, the Zambian women’s team coach has been accused of sexually abusing players
Just days before the World Cup, The Guardian reported that Zambia team coach Bruce Mwape is being investigated after authorities received complaints of sexual abuse from several players.
Zambia is one of Spain’s rivals in Group C, along with Costa Rica and Japan.
Bruce Mwape was appointed in May 2018 and helped Zambia qualify for the World Cup for the first time.
The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) said in September 2022 that it had referred an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in the women’s game to FIFA—football’s governing body.
“Mwape and the under-17 coach Kaluba Kangwa are understood to have been among the FAZ employees who were investigated,” as per The Guardian.
4) Canadian women players feel a lack of support with funding
Funding for women’s football teams have long been an issue.
This past February, players on the Canadian women’s team also threatened to strike after they accused Canada Soccer of failing to properly support them in a World Cup year, according to TIME.com.
“Despite our strong track record of success and history-making achievements for more than a decade, we continued to be told that there is not enough money to fund our program and our youth teams,” the players union posted to Twitter in February.
“Now that our World Cup is approaching, the Women’s National Team players are being told to prepare to perform at a world-class level without the same level of support that was received by the Men’s National Team in 2022, and with significant cuts to our program—to simply make do with less.”
In March, the players went to parliament about the situation. “We as players sometimes have to make choices about which medical treatments to receive when staff physiotherapists are stretched,”
Canadian midfielder Quinn said at a committee hearing in Ottawa.
Christie Sinclair, who has scored more international goals than any player in history, said she brought the team’s concerns to former Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis, who resigned amid the dispute in late February, as per TIME.com.
“The president of Canada Soccer listened to what I had to say and then later in the meeting referred back to it as, ‘What was it Christine was bitching about?’” Sinclair told lawmakers.
Reportedly, Bontis said he didn’t recall using that language, but he apologized about it publicly. “She felt that I treated her concerns disrespectfully. I feel terrible about making her feel this way,” he said. “I’ve since communicated with Christine and her agent to apologize personally. It was a mistake. I take responsibility for it. I regret it.”
The pay issue isn’t just in Canada.
Even though there has been progress in the United States and other countries when it comes to equal pay, the reality is that there is still a huge gap.
FIFA gives out four times as much prize money to men—$440 million for men in comparison to only $100 million for women.
5) Australia and New Zealand are focusing on keeping the positive buzz around the Women’s World Cup in the spotlight
Despite the controversies and issues with women’s football, the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup is being billed as the biggest edition to date.
Australia and New Zealand want to leverage that buzz and even want the momentum to last long after the World Cup is over.
Whatever is happening behind the scenes, the Women’s World Cup is a massive cultural moment for all women in sports.
We’ll all be tuned in.
Also read: Why are Hollywood workers striking and how will it impact the industry?