PHILADELPHIA - FIFA has reiterated that the Womens World Cup will be played on artificial grass in Canada but acknowledges that some surfaces may need to be replaced.Tatjana Haenni, FIFAs head of womens competitions, told a FIFA Live Your Goals Tour news conference Friday that the artificial turf is being tested to make sure it meets standards.We know that Vancouver is an issue, Haenni said of B.C. Place Stadium, which will host the World Cup final among other games. We had some players commenting on that, also from the German national team who have played an international friendly there recently who made some comments.So obviously all those fields will be looked at and theres a potential that some of those fields will have to be changed.There is no plan to go to grass, however, she repeated.The 24-country tournament runs June 6 to July 5 in Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.A group of elite womens players has launched a complaint in the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, alleging that forcing women to play on an artificial surface while the men play their showcase tournament on grass is discriminatory.That complaint, launched against FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association, is currently before the tribunal.FIFA secretary-general Jerome Valcke met with players before the recent Ballon DOr presentation in Zurich.The topic should be over by now, said Haenni, noting FIFAs repeated statements that the tournament will go ahead as planned on artificial turf.I also think by now, and I think some players said it as well, at one points theres a time where you need to focus on football and on the event, she added. All those teams and players and coaches want to win that Womens World Cup ... Theres a certain time where you need to focus and you need to accept certain environmental or infrastructural conditions, whatever it is.The World Cup, she stressed, can lead to improved funding, sponsorship and exposure to the womens game.i really hope at one point we can go to those positive messages and forget the turf discussion.Haenni said she is confident that the Canada in 2015 will follow the past trend of each World Cup improving over the last.The players just get better. Theres no way to stop that so the games will be better. Im also convinced because the media coverage, the requests we have had so far have really been tremendous. 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"I think the glorified violence is really the Achilles heel for the NHL," said Charles "Bucky" Zimmerman, an attorney at Zimmerman Reed that filed the lawsuit on behalf of the players. "If anything comes of this, the focus on the glorified violence and perhaps the change to that will be a good thing." The lawsuit, which is similar to one brought by former football players against the NFL, joins others filed by hockey players in Washington and New York and seeks monetary damages and increased medical monitoring. The NHLPA declined to comment. A message was left with the NHL seeking comment. Zimmerman also worked on the football litigation, which resulted in the NFL agreeing to pay a $765 million settlement to thousands of former players. That settlement is still awaiting a judges approval, but the headlines it generated have been partially responsible for hockey players mounting their own case against the NHL. "Weve seen it in football. Its now here in hockey. Its of the same genesis," Zimmerman said. "Theres knowledge, we believe, that these type of concussive injuries were known and protections were not put in place appropriately enough and fast enough and rules changes were not implemented even today in fighting. "Players continue to be at risk aand suffer as a result of those risks that they take on behalf of the sport.dddddddddddd We think those are unreasonable and they should be changed and the players should be compensated." The lawsuit alleges "the NHL hid or minimized concussion risks from its players, thereby putting them at a substantially higher risk for developing memory loss, depression, cognitive difficulties, and even brain related diseases such as dementia, Alzheimers disease, and Parkinsons disease." One argument that tries to separate the NFL litigation from the NHL case is that by engaging in fighting, players willfully take on the health risks that could come from that. "You could make that argument only to a point," Zimmerman said. "And the point is that the fighting arena would not exist and would be outlawed as it is in every other level of the game had the NHL not condoned it and sold tickets based upon it and promoted the sport in that way. Its not the players that promote the sport in that way because the players dont implement the rules. Its the league that implements the rules. If they would outlaw fighting, there wouldnt be people who would fight." Zimmerman said he thinks more players will join the litigation much in the same way the group of plaintiffs in the NFL case exponentially grew as it progressed. "The light went on for them as the football players story was becoming more told," Zimmerman said. "I think the hockey players started to see that their story was going to be heard and told. Its not that we havent known about football players or hockey players getting hurt. Its now become more important that we talk about it and do something about it rather than just benignly let it continue into the future." ' ' '