The Canadian Soccer Association denied allegations yesterday that it targeted players involved in a legal challenge against the use of artificial turf at next summer’s Women’s World Cup.

“No such threats were made and any suggestion that Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) officials engaged in any wrongdoing is completely baseless,” the association said in a statement.

Lawyers for a group of elite female players involved in the human rights challenge allege that the women are being pressed to drop their lawsuit.

In a letter sent out on Monday to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, the lawyers said: “the (CSA) and Fifa — aided by national federations — have threatened reprisals against a coalition of the world’s best female soccer players for bringing this sex discrimination action.”

The women asked the tribunal for a cease and desist order.

The players allege that Mexican international Teresa Noyola and French internationals Camille Abily and Elise Bussaglia had been threatened with reprisals.

Noyola, according to the filing, was told she would not be invited to play for the Mexican national team unless she withdrew her name from the legal challenge. Abily and Bussaglia 

“were led to believe that their continued participation in this action would lead to retaliation by Fifa in the awarding of the 2019 Women’s World Cup.”

All three have since pulled out of the complaint, although lawyers for the group said 20 players have stepped forward to replace them.

The players also allege that Costa Rican internationals Diana Saenz and Katherine Alvarado, along with a third unidentified player, were told by Costa Rican Federation officials “that their participation put their positions on the team in jeopardy as a result of pressure from CSA and Fifa.”

The women have filed a human rights complaint that Fifa and the CSA are discriminating against women by making them play on artificial turf while the men’s World Cup is held on natural grass.

The group of players includes Germany’s Nadine Angerer, Japan’s Yuki Ogimi and US citizens Shannon Boxx, Sydney Leroux, Alex Morgan and Abby Wambach. There are no Canadian players named to avoid conflicts with the CSA, which doubles as the tournament’s national organising committee.

Fifa and the CSA have no plans to change the playing surface, saying that playing on approved turf is sanctioned under the rules of the game. 

The CSA has engaged an independent consultant to test the surfaces at venues in Moncton, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver. The results are expected in early 2015.