With all the corruption surrounding FIFA in the past few weeks, the organization is trying to regain the trust of fans around the world by assuring that all participants in the Women’s World Cup are in fact women, according to CBC News.
All players in the 2015 World Cup had to provide documentation that they are physically female. While FIFA realized this could garner criticism, most team managers have advocated for the testing in order to maintain the tournament’s integrity. The competitors themselves are by no means taking the testing seriously.
In recent years, several women’s soccer players have been accused of being men. Most recently in 2013, six South Korean teams accused Park Eun-seon of being a man. So perhaps FIFA is nipping this problem in the bud by requiring the testing prior to the tournament.
In print, the 2011 rule does call for all players, meaning men and women to adhere to gender verification procedures. Despite this decree, no documentation can be found on file for men who participated in the 2014 World Cup.