What is it about the international football association that makes it think it’s more infallible than the Pope? The Women’s 2015 World Cup is to be played in Canada, and right now it’s scheduled to be played entirely on artificial turf.

The top women in the world object to this, saying the turf causes injuries that grass fields don’t, and that if this were the Men’s World Cup there wouldn’t even be a discussion about playing on turf. So they’ve sued FIFA, alleging gender discrimination.

What’s history say?

The World Cup finals for men and women, contested every four years, have always been played on natural grass.

What’s FIFA say?

Tatjana Haenni, FIFA’s deputy director of the competitions and head of women’s competitions, told reporters after a tour of one of the stadiums that there is no Plan B and the tournament will go ahead as planned and be played on artificial turf.

“No plans to change that decision,” said Haenni. “I can’t answer if that is fair but that is the way it is going to be.

“It is according to the competition regulations, it is according to laws of the game so all matches will be on artificial turf.”

I’m on the side of the women here. I’m pretty sure there are grass venues available throughout Canada.

You’d think FIFA would be anxious to avoid this uproar right now, since it’s already dealing with allegations of corruption in regard to the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. In fact, that report is apparently now in the hands of FIFA’s President, Sepp Blatter. There have been calls from members of FIFA’s own governing body to make the report public, but Blatter has so far refused.

Blatter said that the report, carried out by Michael Garcia, the head of the investigatory arm of Fifa’s ethics committee, will not be made public because no one on the Fifa executive committee had asked for it to be published, despite contradictory pronouncements from several members of the committee in previous weeks.

In the midst of all this Mr. Blatter has also stated that he plans to run for a fifth term as President of world football (soccer). At age 78, if it were me and I had all this in my face, I’d retire with my millions, I think.