Human Rights

For years, N.C. Courage attendance numbers were some of the best in the NWSL. In 2022, no one wants to go see the Courage play, even when it’s the Challenge Cup final. 

The reasons are pretty obvious. Well, they’re obvious to everyone but the owners, it seems.

For the last few years (discounting the pandemic season of 2020), North Carolina has averaged more than 5,000 fans per game, always in the top half of the NWSL attendance rankings. It wasn’t hard to see why: The Courage won three NWSL Shields and two NWSL Championships from 2017-19. 

Amnesty International and a coalition of human rights organizations, unions and football fan groups are asking FIFA to produce $440 million in remediation to the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers who have suffered human rights abuses during preparations for the Qatar World Cup. 

U.S soccer men's and women's national team players will receive equal pay and prize money, including at World Cups, after they came together to agree on landmark collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with the U.S Soccer Federation on Wednesday.

U.S. Soccer becomes the first federation in the world to equalize FIFA World Cup prize money awarded to both women's and men's teams for participation in their respective World Cups.

I can already see the responses on our Facebook page.

“Who cares?”

“Stop pushing your woke culture.”

“If you want to be gay, why do we have to hear about it?”

Here’s why you should care.

Blackpool forward Jake Daniels announced he is gay on Monday, becoming the first active male professional British footballer to do so since 1990. The last to do so? Justin Fashanu, who committed suicide eight years later. 

Idrissa Gana Gueye was a conspicuous absence during Paris Saint-Germain’s trip to Montpellier on Saturday. The Senegalese midfielder was on the roster and traveled with the team, but when the match rolled around, he was nowhere to be found.

“Idrissa made the trip to Montpellier, but for personal reasons he had to leave the match sheet; but he wasn’t hurt,” PSG coach Mauricio Pochettino said. 

FIFA has been doing its darndest to make sure fans can drink plenty of Budweiser during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The global soccer governing body might want to do a little more to ensure all fans are actually able to attend the tournament in person.

MELBOURNE — Eight months after fleeing Kabul as the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan, Farida trains at a suburban Melbourne pitch, dreaming of one day playing soccer for her country while lamenting the fate of fellow women players back home.

The 20-year-old striker was one of 77 Afghan athletes, family members and officials evacuated from Afghanistan last year by the Australian government after lobbying by prominent figures in the sporting world.

To say 2021 was a bad year for women’s soccer in the U.S. would be an understatement of epic proportions. In October, The Athletic detailed horrifying allegations of verbal abuse and sexual coercion by N.C. Courage coach Paul Riley, sending shockwaves through the NWSL.