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Gender bias accusations hit Australia, Japan
Australia's basketball governing body will review its travel policy after being criticised for flying their men's team to the London Olympics in business class while putting their women's team in economy.
Australia's basketball governing body will review its travel policy after being criticised for flying their men's team to the London Olympics in business class while putting their women's team in economy.
In Japan, soccer officials brushed off accusations that they too had been guilty of sex discrimination after segregating the country's Olympic soccer teams for a long-haul flight.
The different travel plans were slammed by Australian media and politicians called for the teams to receive equal treatment.
"We should bear in mind that in fact, historically, more funding has been directed towards the Opals," Basketball Australia's acting chief executive Scott Derwin said in a statement, referring to the women's team.
"But the simple fact is when a policy results in gender inequality, it's very clearly not the right policy going forward.
"I am putting in place a review of our Olympic travel policy with the goal of ensuring there is equity between travel arrangements for the men's and women's teams attending future Olympics."
Australia's women's basketball team have won silver at the past three Olympics, while their male counterparts — the Boomers — have never medalled.
The criticism came in the wake of a controversy over travel arrangements for Japan's footballers, whose world champion women also flew in more cramped conditions than the less successful men's team.
The great divide
"The JFA (Japanese Football Association) perpetuated the sexist divide that has existed in the world of soccer for a long time," the Nikkan Sports daily newspaper said.
Japan's men flew business, while the women, whose astonishing World Cup win last year lifted the spirits of a nation recovering from the deadly tsunami, sat in premium economy class on the same 12-hour flight to Paris.
The JFA said it was simply a question of professional status and practicality.
"Under the JOC (Japanese Olympic Committee) they would all fly economy but we upgraded them," said media officer Kazutake Nishizawa, who is with the players at the Olympics.
"With the men's professional clubs in Europe and the J-League, it's stipulated they must fly business. The women's game doesn't have those conditions yet. Also, body size does come into the equation."
Columnist Minori Kitahara argued in an Asahi weekly magazine: "Sure, the men's team probably does produce more money. But considering how much the women's team inspired us after (last year's) March 11 disaster, it's absurd to discriminate."
