As I was watching the Brazil-South Korea Women's World Cup game tonight, something kept bothering me. I mean really bothering me. Brazil had five stars above the crest on its jersey. The five stars represent Brazil's five World Cup wins. That's five wins in the men's World Cup. The Brazilian women have won a total of ZERO World Cups, so why are they wearing championship stars?
It's become something of a soccer tradition to put a star on your jersey for winning a major championship. For example, Germany wore three stars on its jerseys during the 2014 World Cup. Since they won the World Cup, the German men now have four stars. Even better, Spain wore its away uniforms in the 2010 World Cup final. After they won, they switched to their familiar red jerseys for the trophy presentation, and they already had the championship star on them.
This tradition extends to club soccer, too. The famous Italian club, Juventus, is credited with starting the trend in 1958, when they added a star to their jersey after winning their 10th Italian Serie A title. It's also been a tradition in MLS since the league was founded. The LA Galaxy won their fifth MLS Cup last season and now have five stars on their jersey. In fact, the MLS teams take it so seriously that the Montreal Impact removed all of the stars they'd put on their jerseys for previous league championships when they joined MLS.
Only eight different countries have won the men's World Cup, so those are the only eight you'll see wearing stars. (Uruguay has only won the World Cup twice, but counts two Olympic championships, so they have four stars on their jerseys.) While it's not an official award from FIFA and national federations are free to do whatever they want, it's understood what stars on the jersey mean. It's a respect thing recognizing you as a World Cup champion. It's like that thing the NBA did with the little gold tab on the back of the jersey for teams that have won a title. You want a star above the crest on your jersey, you've gotta earn it.
On the women's side, only four countries have won the World Cup. Germany and the United States have each won twice, while Norway and Japan have one title apiece. The Germans are the only team to have won both the men's and women's editions, but the men wear four stars for their World Cup titles and the women wear two for theirs. Neither wears six, which is their combined total. They each wear only their own stars.
Likewise, the U.S. men don't wear two stars on their jerseys (the stars on the soccer ball inside the logo don't count). Norway and Japan's men's teams don't wear any World Cup stars, either. Nor should they. They have no reason to. They didn't win those World Cups!
Which brings me to Brazil. I'm a big fan of Brazilian soccer. Who doesn't respect their history, and they've always been an entertaining team to watch. But I find it incredibly pretentious to put the stars that were earned by the men's team on the women's jersey.
That's like if the Baylor men's basketball team were to wear two stars on their uniforms to celebrate the two national championships won by the Baylor women's team. Or the Duke women adding a star on their uniforms next season because of this year's men's title. That would be completely ridiculous and people would sit there thinking "What are they doing?" if they were to do that. This example is obviously not realistic, but I use it to illustrate my point. If the Brazilian women want stars on their jerseys, they need to earn them themselves.
I'm not completely blaming Brazil here. According to Wikipedia, the stars aren't anything "won" or officially awarded by FIFA. They're generally a unilateral decision made by the national federations. But if you win a major title, you're going to add a star. And everyone knows why. Since Brazil has won five World Cups, the five stars above the federation logo are actually part of the national team crest. Which is fine. Except the women have no reason to be wearing the stars!
To put it another way, imagine if Brazil wins this Women's World Cup, which isn't out of the realm of possibility. Will the federation add a sixth star to the crest celebrating the women's team's win? Most likely not. So if they're not going to add a star to the men's jerseys for the women, why should the women wear stars won by the men's team on their jerseys?
FIFA doesn't have a rule here, but maybe they need one. That would be a solution to this problem. Brazil is the only country to win five World Cups. They deserve to be celebrated. But not by the women's team. Let them win their own stars. Those'll mean something.
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