Sport

Sweden’s players had to ‘show their genitalia for the doctor’ at 2011 Women’s World Cup

Fifa demanded immediate testing when rumours began circulating about there being male players on Equatorial Guinea’s team

Nilla Fischer in action for Sweden during the 2019 Women's World Cup. Photograph: Getty Images
Nilla Fischer in action for Sweden during the 2019 Women's World Cup. Photograph: Getty Images
Sean Ingle
Mon Jun 12 2023 - 18:31

Sweden’s players had to “show their genitalia for the doctor” at the 2011 Women’s World Cup to prove they were women, the team’s centre back Nilla Fischer has revealed.

Writing in her new book – I Didn’t Even Say Half Of It – Fischer – who played 194 times for Sweden, described the process, which was conducted by a female physiotherapist on behalf of the doctor, as “humiliating”.

The gender tests were carried out around the 2011 tournament in Germany after protests from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana relating to allegations that the Equatorial Guinea squad included men.

“We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genitalia for the doctor,” Fischer writes. “No one understands the thing about shaving but we do as we are told and think ‘how did it get to this?’ Why are we forced to do this now, there has to be other ways to do this. Should we refuse?

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“At the same time no one wants to jeopardise the opportunity to play at a World Cup. We just have to get the shit done no matter how sick and humiliating it feels.”

In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Fischer detailed the process in more depth. “I understand what I have to do and quickly pull down my training pants and underwear at the same time,” she said. “The physio nods and says ‘yup’ and then looks out at the doctor who is standing with his back to my doorway. He makes a note and moves on in the corridor to knock on the next door.

“When everyone on our team is checked, that is to say, has exposed their vagina, our team doctor can sign that the Swedish women’s national football team consists only of women.”

Asked how it felt, Fischer said: “We had a very safe environment in the team. So it was probably the best environment to do it in. But it’s an extremely strange situation and overall not a comfortable way to do it.”

Two weeks before the 2011 World Cup began, Fifa issued its current gender recognition policies, which require teams to sign a declaration guaranteeing that players chosen for the World Cup are “of an appropriate gender”. Those rules state that: “It lies with each participating member association to ... ensure the correct gender of all players by actively investigating any perceived deviation in secondary sex characteristic.”

However it is unclear why Sweden’s players were given a physical exam when a buccal swab test – a cheap and non-intrusive way to collect DNA from the cells on the inside of a person’s cheek and determine a person’s sex – has been used widely for decades.

Sweden’s team doctor in 2011, Mats Börjesson, said the gender tests took place after Fifa demanded immediate testing when rumours began circulating about there being male players on Equatorial Guinea’s team.

“Fifa doesn’t do this to be mean to anyone,” he said. “The sports world has tried to create fairness for girls so that they don’t train their whole lives and then someone comes in with an unreasonable advantage.”

In a statement Fifa said it had “taken note of recent comments made by Nilla Fischer around her experiences and gender verification testing conducted by the Swedish national team at the 2011 Women’s World Cup”. – Guardian