WEBVTT - Equal Footing 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.000 It's nothing new that women in sport are treated unequally 0:00:05.040 --> 0:00:09.280 and face an uphill battle against sexism. But the stunning 0:00:09.360 --> 0:00:12.720 success of the U s women's soccer team offered FIFA 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.560 a roadmap to a better way of doing business, a 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.439 cleaner way, a less corrupt way, a more fair way. 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:24.160 They didn't embrace it, but women's soccer still offers FIFA 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:27.400 a chance to crow out of its dark past, the 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:30.800 hope for a better tomorrow. That's what today's story is 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:41.440 all about. I'm Connor Powell. This is Episode eleven Equal Footing. 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:46.440 In May of two thousand and thirteen, the lords of 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:49.639 Soccer gathered on the remote island nation of Mauritius off 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.720 the coast of Africa for the sixty third FIFA Congress. 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:56.480 The meeting opened with a sixteen minute long series of 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:01.840 dazzling and colorful choreographed international music performances befitting of the 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:07.000 most ambitious of Broadway shows. Then set Bladder was called 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.520 upon to officially open the meeting. Gives you a great 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.280 pleasure and on a ladies and gentlemen, to now call 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.520 upon the president of the organization that has been referred 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:19.920 to as the guardian of our most precious game. The 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:24.040 presidents of FIFA Joseph S. Blatter to officially welcome all 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.880 of us yeah around of applause, describing set Bladder at 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.959 that moment as the guardian of soccer was ironic at best. 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.760 Welcome to the delegates to these sixty third Congress of FIFA. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:44.160 On st bladders watch, FIFA had stumbled from scandal to scandal, 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:48.720 and as president, Bladder was awfully close to the center 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:53.440 of many of the accusations. As those bosses gathered in Mauritius, 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:57.320 the stink of corruption had only grown stronger. In recent years. 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.920 Bladder and FIFA felt grown in pressure to institute reforms 0:02:02.760 --> 0:02:06.080 or you know, at least look like they were. So. 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:09.240 After one hundred and nine years, the lords of soccer 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.560 decided it was time to allow women into the club. 0:02:13.680 --> 0:02:17.160 The plan was to elect a few ladies, as Bladder 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:20.800 like to say, to FIFA's executive Committee, and get a 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:25.440 much needed public relations win. But Bladder, with his proclivity 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:29.720 for making inappropriate comments, couldn't even execute this pr stunt. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.920 In his attempt to praise Australian Moya Dodd, one of 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:37.960 the three female candidates up for election to FIFA's Executive Committee, 0:02:38.400 --> 0:02:41.959 Bladder found a way to offend. You have a Condi 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:45.519 date and the good Condi date, and the good looking 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:51.040 Condi date. As Bladder giggled about Moya Dodd's looks, the 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:55.280 camera cut to Maria Dodd, who maintained a stone like stair, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.600 you know, the type you put on when you're seething 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.240 with rage inside, but you don't want to show it. 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.160 And FIFA's president wasn't done putting his foot in his mouth, 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.840 though sadly there's no audio of this moment. After Dodd, 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:14.120 Lydia in Secara, and Sonya Benami were officially named to 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:18.560 FIFA's Executive Committee, Bladder stood at the podium and yelled 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.800 say something, ladies. You're always speaking at home, Now you 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:28.440 can speak here. It was typical Bladder and typical FIFA. 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.120 Even when seeming to do the right thing, it became 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:35.200 clear FIFA was doing it for all the wrong reasons. 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.480 As a global nonprofit, FIFA's mandate is to support soccer 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.000 around the globe, not just a men's game, but also 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:48.120 the women's. Of course, it's always put the men's game first. 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.280 FIFA did organize the first Women's World Championship tournament, in 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.440 sixty one years after the first Men's World Cup. That 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:03.720 nineteen tournament has been described by some as a silent trigger, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:07.640 one that said in motion the modern women's game, and 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.720 there's some truth to that. In two thousand and nineteen, 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.120 more than a billion people around the world watched some 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.520 of the Women's World Cup, and that is a massively 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.800 forward compared to that tournament that was only carried live 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:25.839 in China and on tape delay in the US. But 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:29.200 the road to today's women's game is marked by decades 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:33.840 of sexism and shortsighted greediness. You're gonna hear about how 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.440 FIFA created and maintains the system that has forced women 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:41.279 to battle and claw for the scraps of FIFA's largest 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:53.160 all while the lords of soccer enriched themselves. It was 0:04:53.200 --> 0:04:55.760 a run of the mill conference room, you know the 0:04:55.839 --> 0:05:00.160 type with rows of foldable chairs and tables call fee 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.480 on the back. The room was full of sports apparel executives, 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:08.279 everyone hoping to strike a deal. In the months before 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:14.039 the FIFA Women's World Championship. That nondescript conference room is 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.080 where Michelle Acres found herself on a stage in Arizona, 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.280 in front of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. I went 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:26.960 and said, hey, we need your support. Years old. At 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.520 the time, Acres was already one of the top women's 0:05:30.560 --> 0:05:34.960 players in the world, probably the best. At nearly six 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.000 ft tall, Acres ruled the soccer pitch, playing as physically 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:43.240 dominant a game as anyone man or woman in the sport. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:49.960 Yet Acres was a virtual unknown. Support and commercial opportunities 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.479 for the women's game were non existent. FIFA and its 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:58.440 regional federations had ignored women's soccer for decades, and as 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:02.120 a result, so did pretty much everyone else in the sport, 0:06:02.800 --> 0:06:07.760 especially the sports marketing and apparel companies. Even though the 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.600 U S national team had just qualified for the World 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:15.040 Championship in China a few months later, Acres was struggling financially, 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.680 like all the women in the sport. Acres bagged the 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.080 suits in the room to support her, her teammates and 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:27.039 Team America. She told me, she pleaded, please invest in 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:31.560 women's soccer. We need us soccer. We need all the 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.080 corporations and people in soccer to support our team because 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:37.919 we're gonna go win a World Cup. And they laugh. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:42.159 There was nothing funny about it, and nothing funny about 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.040 how ill equipped in cash strapped the U S women's 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:49.080 team was a few months before Acres launched her police 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:52.240 for help, she and her team had traveled to Haiti 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:58.559 desperately poor, politically chaotic, and dangerously unsafe. Haiti, the Caribbean nation, 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.520 was in the midst of year of political upheaval that 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:07.680 included assassinations and coups, but Conka Calf, FIFA's North American Federation, 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:11.680 shrugged off the dangers and decided to hold its qualifying 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:16.239 matches for FIFA Women's World Championship on the troubled island. 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:20.600 Acre says, it was as awful an experience as you 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.040 might expect. Even now, it's hard for me to believe 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:29.120 anyone in soccer thought Haiti was an appropriate place to 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:34.120 hold an international tournament, let alone the first women's qualifying tournament. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:39.720 We stayed at this hotel that was surrounded by really 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.960 high cement wall, like maybe twenty ft high, with broken 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:47.800 glass and stuff at the top. The water was off 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:50.880 on and off all the time, electricity was on and 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:54.040 off all the time, and of course you couldn't drink 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.400 the water. We basically jumped in the pool like after 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:01.640 practices to shower. At this time, most of the top 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:04.640 male soccer players in the world were earning millions in 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:09.280 salaries and sponsorships. With a mere fifteen dollar a day 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:13.160 per diem and a thousand dollars a month stipend, Acres 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.400 and her teammates were literally playing for the love of 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:20.280 the game and the flag on their chests. But as 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.760 bad as the rundown hotel in Haiti was, the trip 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.520 to the stadium was even worse. We had these like 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:32.240 they're kind of like those kind of tourists buses that 0:08:32.360 --> 0:08:35.360 hotels have that kind of take you from the airport 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.480 to the you know, hotel. That's what we had to 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:41.160 go to our games. So we're all stuffed on this 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:46.240 bus thing, uh gelopi bus thing, and all our gear 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.560 was like thrown on top of the bus like you 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:52.680 know Griswold station wagon. And we had guards hanging on 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.559 the sides of the bus with these huge automatic weapons, 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:00.240 and the people were like grabbing the bus and sucking 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.479 the bus and shaking. It was so it was scary. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.040 Now FIFA treated all of the women's teams around the 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.480 globe like garbage. In the nineteen seventies and eighties, there 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.080 was no money for the women's game. But you might 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:17.760 think that the U S team, based in the largest 0:09:17.760 --> 0:09:22.559 economy in the world would be given additional resources. That's America, right, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:28.200 But they didn't. Everyone under FIFA's umbrella, from the regional 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:32.520 organizations to the advertisers to the government, they all refused 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:38.439 to cough up any money. And whatever American patriotism existed 0:09:38.480 --> 0:09:41.920 in that Arizona conference room, it didn't extend to the 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:47.400 U S women's national team. Everyone ignored Acres except no 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:53.040 one believed except for one guy. That one guy was 0:09:53.120 --> 0:09:58.040 Mike Hoban, vice president of soccer promotions at Umbro. What's Umbro? 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:03.000 If you're old enough, you might remember Umbro from your childhood. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.400 In the nineteen eighties, it seemed like everyone had a 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.600 pair of their brightly colored nylon draw strings soccer shorts. 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.760 After a mildly successful pro soccer career in the nineteen seventies, 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.400 Hoban knew all about struggling financially to play the game 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.080 you love, Mick Hoeban gave me his card and said, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.679 I'm with Umbro. I want to sign you. Umbro, which 0:10:25.800 --> 0:10:29.959 sponsored the Brazilian legend Pelee, signed Acres to a major deal, 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:33.320 the first ever for a female soccer player and for 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.320 the first time in her career. Acre says she didn't 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.000 have to worry about money. She wasn't rich, but she 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:46.200 wasn't struggling either. But but, but but she was literally 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:50.480 the only woman in who could say that, and Acres 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:54.400 his financial success was completely due to Mick Hoban's personal interest, 0:10:55.040 --> 0:10:57.240 not any of the lords of soccer who controlled the 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:02.200 sport or anyone else. And it with the first FIFA 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:05.560 Women's World Championship right around the corner, it looked like 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:09.640 the safe might be cracking. The money men who had 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.240 so long ignored the women's game might be ready to 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:23.000 make an investment. Welcome to China and a truly historic occasion. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:27.319 With Chinese pop music blaring, Tianni Stadium and the busy 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:32.840 metropolis of quang Chu was buzzing. Sixty fans stopping, cheering 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.040 and yelling, It had all the trappions of a World 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.800 Cup final on the field. Pale always the ambassador for 0:11:39.840 --> 0:11:43.640 the beautiful game. Welcome the two teams. It's the FEBA 0:11:43.760 --> 0:11:47.520 Women's World Championship Final. For the eminem's gun, It's the 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:52.440 United States versus Norway. The presence of the greatest soccer 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:56.280 player ever only added to the pageantry and spectacle of 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.240 the moment. As the U S women took the pitch, 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.480 their white Adida's uniforms gleamed under the stadium's lights. With 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.640 the red and blue stripes, there was no doubt Team 0:12:07.679 --> 0:12:11.880 America had arrived. Look a little closer at the photos 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.960 from the match, though, and you'll see how ill fitting 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.680 the uniforms really were. They were baggy and long. The 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.280 sleeves were designed for athletes with far broader shoulders than 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:26.520 any of the US players. Oh, there were guys uniforms. 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.680 They were from the guys team. The US women's team 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:34.200 were wearing hand me downs. The uniforms had once belonged 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.439 to an American boys youth squad. It was the latest 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.040 in a long line of slights and snubs for a 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:44.319 team on the cusp of a world championship. But most 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:48.120 of Acre's teammates didn't care. She didn't really care. They 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.199 were young and just happy to be playing, and they 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:53.320 hand me down uniforms were, if you can believe it, 0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:58.520 a step up. Six years earlier, the US Soccer Federation 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.880 gave Acres and her teammates mismatched and numberless men's practice 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:07.880 jerseys for an international competition in Italy. We had to 0:13:07.960 --> 0:13:12.080 sew the patches on um US soccer patch. It was 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:15.840 just kind of here you go. FIFA had brought the 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.040 eyes of the soccer world to southern China in the 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:22.840 fall of Still it wasn't anywhere near the gusto reserved 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:27.679 for the men's game. Remember, in nineteen FIFA demanded Argentina 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.080 install a new color TV transmission system to make sure 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:34.200 the World Cup and its sponsors looked perfect on TV. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.760 Thirteen years later, FIFA couldn't have cared less what the 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:42.960 women were wearing. Still, a tournament of this size for 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:47.080 women and nominally backed by FIFA had never been attempted before. 0:13:47.800 --> 0:13:52.080 It was remarkable for an organization that had not just 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.800 ignored the women's game, but, as the journalist Grant Wall 0:13:55.840 --> 0:14:01.040 points out, actively worked to undermine it for decades and decades, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:05.559 FIFA his view women soccer with total disdain. Until the 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:09.680 early nineteen eighties, FIFA had supported bands on women playing soccer, 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:15.480 both professionally and recreationally in countries like the UK, Germany 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.680 and Brazil. It's really shameful how long it took FIFA 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:22.760 to get on board with women's soccer. Sexism has long 0:14:22.800 --> 0:14:25.720 been the status quo for the lords of soccer. By 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:29.040 the mid nineteen eighties, that began to change ever so 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:33.920 slightly when at the forty five FIFA Congress, Ellen Villy, 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:38.480 a Norwegian delegate, address soccer's governing body. She told FIFA 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.840 to stop ignoring the women's game. Surprisingly, President Joel Havlange 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:50.000 and General Secretary Set Bladder agreed. That's how the tournament 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:54.359 came about. With communist China desperate to host an international 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:58.080 sporting event and willing to put the cost. Havlang and 0:14:58.080 --> 0:15:01.560 Bladder saw a payday for FIFA up with little to 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.520 no financial risk if it failed, which, let's be honest, 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.680 the man of FIFA half expected it to. The candy 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:14.200 maker Mars signed on as the sole sponsor. Today's game 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.040 is presented by Myers Milky Way Bar. Enjoy the smooth 0:15:18.200 --> 0:15:22.720 chocolate and caramel taste of the original Smoothie. It should 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:27.440 come as no surprise that the chauvinistic, male dominated organization 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:32.480 that is FIFA had some irrational concerns about women's biological 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:36.480 sporting abilities. The man who ran FIFA thought the women 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:40.840 should use a smaller ball, believing grown women incapable of 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.360 handling a regulation size one. That plan was ultimately scrapped, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.440 but FIFA did shorten the women's games from the traditional 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.280 ninety minutes down to eighty one. US player joked at 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:56.560 the time that FIFA was afraid their ovaries would fall out. 0:15:57.480 --> 0:16:00.200 U S goalkeeper Mary Harvey, who would later be come 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:05.240 a senior FIFA official, never understood the decision. It didn't 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.560 make sense. Why are we playing any minutes games? I 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:09.880 played ninety minutes with my club. Why am I playing 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:14.000 eighty minutes here? And we are on the way as 0:16:14.040 --> 0:16:18.440 the blast ball flash? Really is what the side up. 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.680 Throughout the tournament, the twelve teams dismantled the idea women 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:24.960 were unable to play the sport at a high level. 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:31.680 The final was no different. America's star forward Michelle Acres 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.800 is physical and aggressive style was particularly impressive. There we 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:40.120 see Michelle a first golf Don't watch the so dangerous 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:43.120 pour off the wall, fade on the ground and the 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.120 newcapy figure jump high in the air, redirect the ball 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.440 at the ball. What a fantastic goal. If you watch 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:53.720 the games, you heard the commentators constantly reinforcing the idea 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.600 that the women's game wasn't inferior, wasn't daintier, like so 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.920 many global soccer headlong belief place scrappy. Here in the 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.600 opening stages of this second half, as Michelle is getting 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:07.720 up off the ground, I believe it's the old knee 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:11.159 making contact with face and that spencer. Certainly both the 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.720 police that one bit, Both Norway and the US were 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.320 proving just how wrong soccer's ruling elite had long been. 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:23.040 Seconds left in this World Championship when the final whistle blew, 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:27.160 we wait simply for the whistle and the United States 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.320 I finally won a World champions Jeff in soccer, and 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.280 look at the chimlation chall le field. Back home, the 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:38.000 U S women's team was hailed as heroes and we're 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.480 quickly booked on pretty much every national TV show, and 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.399 they were welcomed home with a New York City ticker 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:49.840 tape parade. Yeah sorry, I might have gotten carried away 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:55.639 a bit. That's what should have happened, But that's not 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:59.520 what happened. Let me see, Michelle Akers did score two goals, 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:01.800 and they may Americans did win the tournament in China, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.480 that's true, but there was no ticker tape parade or 0:18:05.520 --> 0:18:09.680 TV network opportunities, just three journalists waiting for the team 0:18:09.720 --> 0:18:15.520 at New York's JFK Airport. Money Nope, no fifty million 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:19.600 dollar payday like the men's champions Just five dollars for 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:23.080 the players who are out of college. And they couldn't 0:18:23.119 --> 0:18:27.159 even claim a World Cup victory. FIFA refused to bestow 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:32.640 the title of World Cup on the women's tournament. No. Instead, 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:36.760 they went with this ridiculous and no doubt financially lucrative title. 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.400 It's the Feball Women's World Championship Finals for the Eminem's Gun. 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:48.200 Did you catch that? The first ever FIFA Women's World 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:53.480 Championship wasn't merely sponsored by Eminem's. The trophy was literally 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:58.720 called the Eminem's Cup. Delectable chocolate morsels that never melt 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:03.159 in your mouth. Eminem's maybe, but they are still candy. 0:19:03.359 --> 0:19:06.520 It makes me want to throw up. But I also, 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.239 you know, shake my head. I'm like, gosh, just you know, 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.119 it's mind blowing, and but it's it's sort of um 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:19.679 humiliating in one sence too, and also just it's an 0:19:19.680 --> 0:19:25.439 outrage to me. And but it's also like laughable. The 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:30.440 trophy's name hardly seems appropriate, especially compared to the religious 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.760 reverence the men's hardware has long been given. FIFA at 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.439 least had the good sense the craft the trophy in 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:40.840 the shape of a soccer ball instead of a miniature eminem. 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:43.879 But knowing FIFA, my guess is Mars just didn't pony 0:19:43.960 --> 0:19:48.040 up enough cash. Whatever outrage they felt at the name, 0:19:48.680 --> 0:19:51.200 Mary Harvey says she knew what she and her teammates 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.040 had accomplished as far as I was concerned, we had 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:55.800 won the World Cup. It just happened to be the 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.960 Women's World Cup, and what FIFA chooses to call it 0:19:59.119 --> 0:20:01.960 or not call it was kind of their problem, not mine. 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.560 They were the type of parties where you sip top 0:20:11.600 --> 0:20:15.000 shelf liquor while standing underneath a ten ft ice sculpture 0:20:15.600 --> 0:20:17.800 and eating orders from a waitress that would be on 0:20:17.800 --> 0:20:20.240 the cover of some fashion magazine in a few months. 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:23.639 These are the types of parties FIFA is known for, 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.160 and the types of parties Michelle Acres found herself attending 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:32.159 following Team America's victory that would be at these World 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.960 Cups or men's events and being treated kind of like 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:39.879 Royalty as the best women's soccer player in the world 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.840 and with an Umbro deal to prove it. Acres was 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.200 soccer Royalty, robbing elbows with the sports ruling elite as 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.360 they enjoyed the gluttony of FIFA's empire. Acres knew all 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:55.240 of the lords of soccer, most of them by first name, 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:59.920 Jal Horse, Franz, Chuck, and of course Sep. I would 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:02.920 be wearing a dress and you know, all these black 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.760 tie things, and they would stand there and look me 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:08.520 up and down, and then step he would come over 0:21:08.600 --> 0:21:12.040 and he'd extend his hand and oh, Michelle, you look 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:18.720 so lovely. Can we see more? The leering, the suggestive comments, 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.760 the demeaning questions, they were all features of life inside 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:27.360 of FIFA's inner circle. I'm in the room and this 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:31.880 is their culture. So I accepted that part of it 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:34.840 to be in their culture to try and change it. 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:39.199 Access to the room, as Acres described it, allowed her 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:43.040 to see FIFA's outrageous wealth and culture up close, and 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:46.240 how it's fortune was shared with the men of the sport. 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:50.520 I started seeing everything the guys had and then what 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:52.760 we had. And when I said okay, well, we're going 0:21:52.800 --> 0:21:55.320 to have that, and I didn't talk about it with 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:59.320 my team. I just did it. When it came to 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.840 funding the wins game, FIFA showed little interest in spreading 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.480 the wealth. It wasn't recruiting long term sponsors or cultivating 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.119 corporate partners like it was doing on the men's side. 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:13.840 US Soccer mimic FIFA's position, insisting it couldn't sell interest 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:17.640 in the women's game. The sponsorship opportunities, they said over 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:22.480 and over, just weren't there. And yet American officials still 0:22:22.600 --> 0:22:26.520 demanded US female soccer players where Adida's gear at all 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:29.760 times without providing it like they did for the men. 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:33.679 The women were trapped in a contractual relationship that didn't 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:37.240 provide them with basic equipment and at the same time 0:22:37.960 --> 0:22:43.840 limited their ability to pursue outside sponsorships. I said, guys, 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:48.240 they should be giving us cleats. If they're not going 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:50.720 to give us cleats, then they can't demand we wear 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:54.879 a brand. When I signed with Umbro, I came into 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.960 camp wearing Umbro stuff because they didn't give us anything 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.119 to wear. Then US Soccer got mad and said, no, 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.280 you can't do that, and I said, yes, I can 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:08.639 then give us gear to wear off the field, Whispers 0:23:08.680 --> 0:23:13.840 that Acres was difficult A troublemaker soon followed. Younger teammates, 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.480 many of whom were still in college, were urged by 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:21.760 male US officials to keep their distance. God help them, 0:23:21.760 --> 0:23:23.879 don't go near her, because you don't want any of 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:27.439 that rubbing off on you. Acres the line of attack 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:31.600 went wasn't standing up for her teammates, but selfishly promoting 0:23:31.640 --> 0:23:35.679 her own Umbro contract over US Soccers deal with Adidas. 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:39.960 There was blowout from my team to me about that. 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:44.200 It was sort of seen as this, yeah, selfish kind 0:23:44.200 --> 0:23:47.760 of act, rubbing in their face act, when it really wasn't. 0:23:48.480 --> 0:23:54.520 As Women's World Cup approached, this have versus have not competition, 0:23:55.119 --> 0:23:58.399 encouraged by the wealthy leaders of FIFA, would begin to 0:23:58.480 --> 0:24:05.800 undermine Team USA's asked for a repeat championship. It was 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:10.080 just ten minutes into the much anticipated rematch, so it's 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:14.800 been a branch start for the Norwegians. When Norway's growth 0:24:15.320 --> 0:24:20.240 set maneuvered and adjusted the ball ever so slightly along 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:23.119 the white corner arc, lining up a shot in the 0:24:23.119 --> 0:24:27.280 opening minutes of the FIFA Women's World Cup semi final, 0:24:28.040 --> 0:24:30.840 you could hear the importance of the moment as the 0:24:30.880 --> 0:24:37.600 Americans set their defense against Norway's corner kick or what 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:42.320 a cola cake throw espath will take it? That you 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:46.320 could even hear the Americans talking so clearly in Sweden's 0:24:46.640 --> 0:24:50.600 ros Valen Stadium is still surprising to me. To this dick, 0:24:51.560 --> 0:24:53.520 what's the difficult one for the don't keeper? And it 0:24:53.640 --> 0:24:58.800 said brow I had laid, I think it's It was 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:02.960 the biggest rivalry in FIFA's blossoming Women's World Cup tournament, 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:08.160 and the Swedish stadium was basically empty. The four thousand 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:12.320 or so spectators on hand were a far cry from 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:15.560 the sixty thousand who saw the US and Norraway play 0:25:15.600 --> 0:25:20.960 in China four years earlier. If championship for the Eminem's 0:25:21.000 --> 0:25:23.720 Cup was a massive step forward for the women's game, 0:25:25.720 --> 0:25:29.399 tournament was easily two steps back, not only for the 0:25:29.480 --> 0:25:32.240 U S side, which lost to their arch nemesis Norway 0:25:32.240 --> 0:25:35.520 in the semifinals and the USA find themselves a girl behind, 0:25:36.800 --> 0:25:40.920 but also for the women's game in general. Gone were 0:25:40.920 --> 0:25:43.840 the pack Chinese stadiums were placed instead by a few 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:48.520 hundred family and friends in near empty Swedish venues. FIFA 0:25:48.600 --> 0:25:52.000 had done little to invest in or grow the women's 0:25:52.000 --> 0:25:56.240 game in the four years between the tournaments. In front 0:25:56.240 --> 0:25:59.960 of the camera set Bladder love to praise the women's game. 0:26:00.480 --> 0:26:06.760 The development of women's football since nine is tremendous. The 0:26:06.800 --> 0:26:10.919 future of football will be feminine, and FIFA conferred the 0:26:10.920 --> 0:26:15.680 title of a World Cup on the tournament, but not 0:26:15.840 --> 0:26:20.000 much Ellens had improved. The US star Mia Ham joined 0:26:20.040 --> 0:26:23.800 Michelle Eacres with a massive endorsement deal, landing Nike as 0:26:23.840 --> 0:26:27.919 her financial backer, but the economics of the sport on 0:26:28.000 --> 0:26:32.480 the whole still sucked for female soccer players in both 0:26:32.520 --> 0:26:35.600 the US and around the world. Soccer was no road 0:26:35.640 --> 0:26:40.920 to riches. It remains an economic sacrifice. Only a select 0:26:41.000 --> 0:26:46.600 few were paid anything but a measly per diem. Women's 0:26:46.600 --> 0:26:50.760 World Cup champions Norway received a ten thousand dollar a 0:26:50.800 --> 0:26:55.520 year stipend from the Norwegian Soccer Federation. That's it. One 0:26:55.520 --> 0:26:58.280 of their top players, Linda Madalin, survived by making a 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:02.320 living as a part time private investigator, earning the nickname 0:27:02.359 --> 0:27:05.720 the Magnum p i of international soccer. And it was 0:27:05.800 --> 0:27:08.560 just as bad for the Americans. Most of them were 0:27:08.560 --> 0:27:11.400 still largely living off of their meager daily food per 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:14.800 diem at a thirty dollar a day stipend his compensation 0:27:14.960 --> 0:27:19.800 for lost wages. America in Norway were the two biggest 0:27:19.840 --> 0:27:23.360 brands in women's soccer, and they were playing too empty 0:27:23.440 --> 0:27:25.880 seats and paint out of their own pockets to do it. 0:27:27.000 --> 0:27:29.600