A group of elite players has filed a lawsuit in Canada challenging plans to play the 2015 Women's World Cup on artificial turf.
The players, led by U.S. women's national team forward Abby Wambach, filed Wednesday in the human rights tribunal of Ontario, attorney Hampton Dellinger told The Associated Press.
The women claim that playing the sport's premier tournament on fake grass amounts to gender discrimination under Canadian law. Their male counterparts have always played the World Cup on natural grass surfaces, and will for the foreseeable future.
The players say they believe there is a greater risk of injury on turf and that an artificial surface impacts both how the game is played and how the ball behaves.
Among the players joining Wambach are U.S. teammate Alex Morgan, Germany's Nadine Angerer, Brazil's Fabiana Da Silva Simoes and Spain's Veronica Boquete.
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