MONTREAL, October 10, 2014 (AFP) – Canadian football chiefs claimed Friday that a discrimination complaint filed by some of the world’s top women players, angry at being forced to play the 2015 World Cup on plastic pitches, was without merit.

A lawsuit lodged against world governing body FIFA and the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) at the Ontario Human Rights tribunal argues that matches at the men’s World Cup are always played on natural grass.

“The Canadian Soccer Association is prepared to vigorously defend its position and believes the complaint is entirely without merit,” the CSA said in a statement.

The plaintiffs include reigning FIFA Player of the Year Nadine Angerer of Germany, 2012 Ballon d’Or winner Abby Wambach of the United States, as well as players from Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.

“The use of high quality turf is integral to soccer in Canada, and the suggestion that having matches played on first class football turf rather than grass would be discrimination based on gender trivializes that important human right,” the CSA added.

The players say that requiring them to play on a “second-class surface” would “fundamentally alter” their style of play, would subject them to injuries, and devalues their “dignity, state of mind and self respect”.

“Should the complaint proceed, the Canadian Soccer Association will demonstrate that there is no proven increased risk to players from the use of football turf over grass, as supported by numerous independent studies,” the statement read.

The CSA also blasted the plaintiffs, saying they’d known what type of surface would be used for almost three years.

But they “have chosen to wait to the last minute to exercise their rights and bring a complaint forward, without providing justification for the delay,” the CSA said.

The CSA also claimed that only seven out of 550 players expected to feature at the tournament had complained, and none of the seven “are residents of Ontario or play with a Canadian team”.

“The Canadian Soccer Association is prepared to vigorously defend its position and believes the complaint is entirely without merit,” the organization said.

The women’s World Cup will be staged at Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Montreal and Moncton from June 6 to July 5 next year.