Speak up! From mutiny and boycotts to equal-pay demands, women's game faces reckoning

(Note: Paragraph 11 contains language readers may find offensive)

By Lori Ewing and Amy Tennery

MANCHESTER, England/NEW YORK : 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.

France will play in Australia and New Zealand with a clean slate under coach Herve Renard, who was hired to replace Corinne Diacre after key players refused to play under her.

Canada captain Christine Sinclair said last week the Olympic champions were "pretty darn close" to a labour agreement that will get them equal treatment with the men.

"It is fascinating to see how social change as a grassroots movement from the players, and from supporters who've been around the block for a long time in women's football, forces the structural change that we're now seeing at a pace that is rapid," Baer-Hoffman told Reuters.

Just days before the Women's World Cup kicks off July 20, however, some teams are still in turmoil.

Spain are without some of their most talented players after a 15-player mutiny unfolded in September