FIFA could subject certain World Cup players to a femininity test. She wants to avoid the controversy of 2011, when 3 players from Equatorial Guinea were suspected of being men.
The files are piling up for FIFA! After the recent corruption cases which pushed its president, Sepp Blatter, to the resignation, it is another matter which shakes the world of the round ball.
In the midst of the Women’s Football World Cup currently taking place in Canada (June 6 to we learn from our colleaguesEurope 1 that FIFA allow itself the right to carry out, for the first time, femininity tests throughout the duration of the competition.
Measurement of testosterone levels
The delegations of the 24 teams qualified for this final phase were informed the day before the competition of these new regulations. In a document that FIFA transmitted to them, we can read that doctors will be dispatched to the edge of the field in order to “study any deviance in the sexual characteristics” of the players. This method, which can shock, had however already been practiced during the last Women’s World Cup in 2011 in Germany. It is characterized as follows: the doctor measures the size of the player’s shoulders and muscles and can alert FIFA if he finds her measurements too masculine.
But the continuation of these tests takes an unprecedented turn this year, since in the event that the player is, in addition, judged too efficient (and therefore too masculine), the doctor will be able to take her saliva. The purpose of this test: to measure your testosterone level.
Consenting federations
“Looking for the testosterone level, it bothers me a lot”, reacted on this radio Frédérique Jossinet, in charge of women’s football within the French Federation (FFF). “Of an athlete who runs very fast, we will say: ‘How beautiful he is, how strong he is. A sportswoman who does that, we will say: “She is a little too masculine”. I think we have to stop thinking that, because we have higher than normal testosterone levels, these are not women, ”she concluded.
Indeed, scientifically, the testosterone level proves absolutely nothing.
However, federations have already taken the lead since at the end of May, Doris Fitschen, the manager of the Germany team, revealed that she had already given a femininity test to the twenty-three players of his team to prevent them from having to submit to it during the competition at the request of an opposing federation. “It’s true, this rule exists. FIFA must have its reasons. We learned it and are happy to be able to see it: our players are all female ”, she was delighted in comments reported by The world.
To conclude, FIFA could even reserve the right to exclude suspected footballers who do not lend themselves to these femininity tests.
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