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| Reuters |
From the American campaign against abuse in their professional leagues to France players demanding the removal of their coach and Canadians threatening boycotts, women's soccer is facing a reckoning in the lead-up to the ninth World Cup.
Some of the issues will be resolved, others might drag on, but it looks like the days when players suffered in silence rather than speaking out are long gone.
"One hundred percent, I think it's so prevalent," said Jonas Baer-Hoffmann, the general secretary of global players union FIFPRO.
"I think it's more prevalent than it's ever been in any other sport on a global stage. I don't think you've had this kind of co-ordinated - or uncoordinated - wave of speaking up, standing up, forcing change ever before."
Speaking up has proved highly successful in some cases.
