Swedish players were made to prove their gender by showing their genitalia to the doctor at the 2011 Women's World Cup, the team's centre-back has revealed.
Nilla Fischer made the admission in her new book I Didn't Even Say Half Of It, describing the process as "sick and humiliating".
The gender tests at the 2011 tournament resulted from allegations by several countries that the Equatorial Guinea squad included men.
Fischer, who played 194 times between 2001 and 2022, wrote that the players were asked to "not shave down there in the coming days" before showing their genitalia to a female physiotherapist on behalf on 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 shit done no matter how sick and humiliating it feels.”
FIFA issued its current gender recognition policy two weeks prior to the kick-off of the 2011 World Cup in Germany. It requires the signing of a declaration that guarantees World Cup players are "of an appropriate gender".
A cheaper and non-intrusive manner of determining a person's sex is the use of a buccal swab test of the cells inside the cheek. This method has been used for decades, so it is unclear why Swedish players were subjected to a physical exam.
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”.
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