The Women's World Cup starts on Friday. You can look out for my preview later in the week. But with the Women's World Cup about to start, it's a good time to think about an issue that has the women's teams rightfully ticked off. Megan Rapinoe even called it "ricidulous." There are three major FIFA tournaments this summer--and the finals of all three are on the same day!
This is a problem that's 100 percent of FIFA's own making. And it was 100 percent avoidable. Yet, for some reason, they allowed the finals of both the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa America to be scheduled on the same day as the Women's World Cup final! (FIFA doesn't organize the two men's regional tournaments, but does have final say over the schedule.) The games are all at different times, but that's not even the point. The women already felt like they get the short end of the stick. And, really, after seeing this scheduling, who can blame them?
Regarding the Women's World Cup, I get the timing. In fact, this is the exact same timing as four years ago in Canada. Meanwhile, Copa America and the Gold Cup are both earlier than usual. And, frankly, it doesn't make much sense for those two tournaments to be at the same time anyway, since that made it impossible for Mexico to participate in both (this is the first Copa America Mexico has missed since they expanded the tournament beyond just the 10 South American teams in 1993).
There are some logical reasons for scheduling the Women's World Cup for now, and they all make sense. The tournament's in France, and the organizers wanted to make sure it was done early enough so that it wouldn't conflict with the Tour de France (the Tour starts on July 6, the day before the final, but the first two stages are in Belgium). Totally reasonable. (In 2024, it'll actually be the opposite, and the Tour will have to start earlier than usual because of the Paris Olympics, which start on July 26.)
At first I found it odd that they didn't set it up so that the final would be on Bastille Day (especially since the French women's team is very good and is definitely considered one of the favorites). Although, the Tour de France conflict aside, moving the tournament back a week would've been the same schedule as the men last year, when the final was on the same day as the Wimbledon final. And the international TV broadcasters (who pay a lot for rights to both events) weren't happy about the World Cup Final and Wimbledon final taking place simultaneously! So it was wise to avoid that conflict, as well.
With all that in mind, the June 7-July 7 dates for the Women's World Cup aren't the issue. And once those dates were set, FIFA should've made sure to avoid any major conflicts. After all, the Women's World Cup is the premier FIFA tournament this year, so you'd figure they'd want to protect their own product. Instead, they allow not one, but two, regional men's tournaments to not just be played at the same time, but have their finals on the same day!
To be fair, because of the time difference, the men and women won't have any conflicting game times. Since the Women's World Cup is in France, all of the games will be in the morning and early afternoon here, while the men's games will be at night (and there's overlap between Copa America and the Gold Cup almost every night). And on the day of the three finals, they're all staggered (Women's World Cup at 11, Copa America at 4, Gold Cup at 8:30). But the fact that we're even talking about this is, as Megan Rapione said, "ridiculous."
After this year, there won't be any more conflicts with Copa America, which is moving permanently to Olympic years in 2020 so it corresponds with the Euro. I didn't realize this at first, but Copa America and the Women's World Cup also took place at the same time in 2015...when the Women's World Cup was in Canada! Although, the Copa America final was on Saturday and the Women's World Cup final was on Sunday, so at least that wasn't a conflict.
So, it's the Gold Cup that's the real problem here. The Gold Cup is typically held entirely within the month of July. This year, the final is on July 7. I have no idea why it was moved earlier. Perhaps to coordinate with Copa America (which, again, makes it so that Mexico and the United States can't play in both). It was also expanded from 12 teams to 16, but that didn't make the tournament any longer. Now, I think the Gold Cup and Copa America should be combined like they were in 2016, but I digress.
I'm sure FIFA's international window came into play here, too. Although, with all the European and South American leagues in their offseason, MLS teams are really the only ones that would be affected by the requirement to release their players for National Team duty. And MLS, outside of the dates when FIFA says they're absolutely not allowed to play, continues its season without those players (many of whom would only be on Gold Cup countries) anyway.
And, really, it wouldn't have been that hard to make the adjustment. I don't even think it would be as big of a problem if one of the men's tournaments was at the same time as the Women's World Cup. But even that doesn't seem necessary. Copa America could easily start a week later and have a July 14 final, and the Gold Cup could've stayed in its usual July timeframe.
Also, the Champions League final just happened. So, the South American players on Liverpool and Tottenham (as well as Chelsea and Arsenal, who played in the Europa League final) are going directly from their clubs to their National Teams for the major tournament of the year. Yes, I understand they do this all the time throughout the year, but would an extra week of rest or two really be a bad thing? (I do remember seeing somewhere that part of the rationale for having the men's tournaments so early was so they could get more time on the back end before next season starts in August.)
We don't even know where the 2023 Women's World Cup's going to be yet (that's another equity issue that needs to be addressed). Australia's currently the favorite, which would put games in the middle of the night/early morning. And with the reverse seasons, I'd imagine the tournament would be later in the North American summer (or in March/April).
Either way, let's hope we're not dealing with the same scheduling problems in 2023. Because the women deserve better than that. They deserve to have their World Cup be the focus without sharing the spotlight. Because "sharing the spotlight" means they'll get overshadowed. And that simply isn't right. In fact, in the words of Megan Rapinoe, "it's ridiculous."
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