Women’s World Cup 2023 is near it’s end and the quarterfinals are in place on Friday and Saturday. Spain will face Netherlands, Australia and France will fight in order to play the winner of the England – Columbia duel, while Japan will play against Sweden. The team from the North of Europe is a regular in all big FIFA and UEFA competitions and this is their ninth consecutive participation in the World Cup, as they have been regulars since 1991. Their biggest success was the second place in 2003 and the third in 1991, 2019 and 2011.A great story of the Women’s World Cup – the only footballer wearing a hijabThat 2011 Cup in Germany felt humiliating for many (if not all) footballers participating. Two weeks before the 2011 World Cup began, FIFA issued its current gender recognition policies, which basically means that every team participating had to provide a signed declaration in which they guarantee that all their players are of “an appropriate gender”. And former Sweden player Nilla Fischer, who played 10 years for the national team and had 194 caps (4th on the eternal list) thought that the overall process was very humiliating.“We were told that we should not shave ‘down there’ in the coming days and that we will show our genetalia 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 shit done no matter how sick and humiliating it feels” she wrote in her new book ‘I Didn’t Even Say Half Of It – Fischer’.Nigeria hold Ireland to become first African side into Round of 16In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, Fischer explained the process in detail.“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. It’s an extremely strange situation and overall not a comfortable way to do it” she said.’I had to strip naked to prove I was a woman’ – Genoveva Anonma’s shocking ordeal http://t.co/cbrmAhsWLq pic.twitter.com/y86BJzYkcQ— Eurosport (@eurosport) January 14, 2015 But how it all started? A year before, a small African country Equatorial Guinea managed to secure the World Cup 2011 participation, but was faced with official accusations from Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana that their squad included men. Several rival teams in the recent African women’s championship complained that two of its players – the captain, Genoveva Anonma, and a striker, Salimata Simpore – had one Y chromosome too many. Both players later talked about the humiliation they faced and due to those accusations FIFA introduced that rule ahead of the Championship.##NAJAVA_MECA_7417550##
