PARIS — Seizing on the once-in-every-four-years spectacle, teams at the Women's World Cup are hoping that the attention the sport will get in France will bring about change at home.
But it's not just about soccer. It's about respect.
For the defending champion U.S. women's team, that means a focus on the players' fight for equitable pay. For Australia, that means increased prize money for the most prestigious tournament in women's soccer. And for Jamaica, it means more support for the athletes from a federation that let the team go unfunded, and as a result, dormant, for years.
"It certainly is a platform. It's the biggest stage that we have," Megan Rapinoe said while discussing the U.S. team's ongoing fight. "It's a balance, though, because first and foremost, I think we have this platform and it's as big as it has been because we've been so successful, and on the biggest stages we've been successful."
The U.S. is the defending champion and a three-time winner of the World Cup, which kicks off Friday in Paris. Twenty-four teams will crisscross France over the next month, with the winner decided in Lyon on July 7.
Jamaica, the first Caribbean nation to qualify for a Women's World Cup, is among those teams. The Reggae Girlz want to change the perception of the women's game in a nation that traditionally hasn't valued it: Funding was cut when the team didn't qualify for the 2008 Olympics. The team was revived just five years ago.
Like many teams in the region, Jamaica's women have struggled for basic support, even equipment. There's been little or no compensation for players.
Coach Hue Menzies said the team's first-ever appearance in the World Cup is "actually a cause."
"We want to make an impact socially," Menzies said.
The Americans are largely seen as the leaders when it comes to tackling equity issues — using their status as the top-ranked team in the world. Players have filed a federal lawsuit that accuses the U.S. Soccer federation of discrimination and seeks compensation that's equitable with compensation for the men's national team.
U.S. defender Becky Sauerbrunn sees this World Cup as a turning point.
"I think we have so much further to go, but I think we're at that point right now where, for women's soccer and for this tournament, it's, 'How much can we push this and raise this further? How much more can we get the neutral fan to become the die-hard fan?' Can we get the investors to go from 'Maybe we'll invest in this,' to 'We're absolutely investing in this because we see this as an untapped marketplace?' So I think this is kind of a critical point for us, where we can really take some strides that maybe we wouldn't be able to in a non-World Cup year," Sauerbrunn said.
U.S. coach Jill Ellis was the first to declare that video review should be used at the Women's World Cup after it was used for the first time in 2018 for the men's tournament in Russia. Ellis has also criticized FIFA, soccer's international governing body, for scheduling the finals for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America on the same day as the World Cup championship game.
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