Sweden’s women footballers had to “show their genitalia” to guarantee their place at the 2011 Women’s World Cup. Former Sweden centre-back Nilla Fischer has opened up on the ordeal she and her fellow team-mates had to face.
Fischer has written a book, entitled I Didn’t Even Say Half Of It, where she has revealed the lengths that players had to go to in order to prove they were female. An examination was carried out ahead of the tournament in Germany by a female physiotherapist.
The tests had followed protests from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana, who alleged that the Equatorial Guinea women’s team included men. FIFA also issued gender recognition policies shortly before the tournament, where teams had to sign off a guarantee that all players participating were “of an appropriate gender”.
Fischer, who won 194 caps for her country, has explained the humiliation she and her fellow players felt. She wrote: “We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genitalia for the doctor.
“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?
“At the same time no one wants to jeopardise the opportunity to play at a World Cup. We just have to get the s**t done no matter how sick and humiliating it feels.”
Fischer has also gone into depth about the process of the tests she faced before participating in the second of her four World Cups, including the presence of a male doctor who would sign off the checks. She told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet: “I understand what I have to do and quickly pull down my training pants and underwear at the same time.
“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. 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.”
FIFA have responded to Fischer’s revelations by stating they have “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”.
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