Governing Bodies
Trump’s ban on transgender sports may be difficult to enforce
United States’ President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting transgender women and girls from playing in female sports offers little guidance on enforcing the ban beyond looking into the “best practices” of those states with similar laws, which have mostly proven limited or impractical.
Current options for enforcing the ban range from looking at birth certificates, which can be altered, to inspecting the bodies of children, an alternative that most would find unpalatable at best. “Anti-trans school sports bans are difficult to enforce because they rely on sex testing and body policing for implementation and enforcement,” said Chris Mosier, a transgender athlete and founder of transathlete.com, a website on school policies related to transgender athletes.
The issue is one that sports associations, schools and states have wrestled with for decades, with so-called “naked parades” and gynecological exams used to confirm sex for some events in the 1960s, though those methods were later abandoned.
Of the 25 states that have laws resembling Trump’s new order, only 12 specify a procedure for determining a student’s sex. In most cases, it involves checking birth certificates, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that advocates for transgender rights.
Other states look to affidavits from parents, students or healthcare providers.
“An increased scrutiny on athletes’ bodies creates serious harm to all women and girls who are perceived as ‘more masculine’ due to being queer, intersex, or otherwise out of alignment with narrow, white-centric norms of femininity,” said Mosier.
In 2020, Idaho became the first state to pass a law prohibiting transgender women and girls from playing on female-designated sports teams, mandating that a student whose sex was in dispute would have to provide a health exam and consent form from a healthcare provider.
The healthcare provider could verify the student’s sex by relying on their genetic makeup, reproductive anatomy or naturally produced testosterone levels, according to the law, which has since been blocked by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
A transgender woman, Lindsay Hecox, sued to block the law after she would not qualify to join the female track team at Boise State University due to the tests for biological sex.
For at least some of those who support the president’s order, the message it sends is powerful and overdue, regardless of any issues over enforcement that may surface.
“The executive order … is important legally but also vital for the long-overdue message it sends to women and girls: your rights matter,” said Kristen Waggoner, CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom, which describes itself as a conservative Christian legal advocacy group. “For too long, our daughters have heard the opposite message from those in power.”
A SITUATION NOBODY WANTS
Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University, said that the Olympics previously relied on testosterone testing, a highly flawed method because of differences in how bodies use the hormone. Similar tests in universities and high schools would be inappropriate because they do not necessarily show athletic performance, she said.
“Are we going to test nine-year-olds for testosterone?” Cooky asked. “Are we going to make nine-year-old boys and girls undergo physical inspections? This raises a whole host of issues. High schools and colleges don’t have the resources that the Olympic committee might,” she added.
To enforce Trump’s ban, she said, schools may end up relying on reports from parents or other students who suspect athletes may not be biological girls because of how they look or even if a student is exceptionally athletic, typically considered a male attribute.
“This ban is going to implicate all girls and women regardless of whether or not they are trans or cis gender,” she said.
A West Virginia law banning transgender students from playing sports according to their gender identity also relies on birth certificates and physical exams.
The law, which is also currently blocked by a judge, was challenged after an 11-year-old transgender girl wanted to run track and cross-country on the female team in middle school.
Relying on student birth certificates can be difficult because transgender youth in many states have the ability to change the documents, said Elana Redfield, federal policy director at the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.
One transgender boy who updated his birth certificate to display his sex as male later filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against his Florida school district for not allowing him to use the male restroom. Two federal courts ruled in his favor, but the appeals court reversed its decision in 2023 after a rehearing before a panel comprising all of its judges.
Without a more consistent enforcement mechanism, some authorities have floated the idea of inspecting the bodies of students to determine their assigned sex at birth, Redfield said.
“The concern is that you’re creating a situation where the school officials or some other entity would have to actually look at the physical bodies of children, which nobody wants,” she said.
-Reuters
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World football governing body, FIFA, today clocks its 122nd anniversary, celebrating more than a century of overseeing and expanding the global game.
Founded on May 21, 1904, in Paris, France, FIFA began with just seven member associations — France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
From that modest beginning, the organisation has grown into the most influential sports governing body in the world, with 211 member associations spread across all continents.
Over the decades, FIFA has transformed football into a truly global phenomenon through competitions such as the FIFA World Cup, Women’s World Cup, Club World Cup, youth tournaments, and developmental programmes aimed at growing the game worldwide.
The organisation has also witnessed remarkable milestones, including the expansion of the men’s World Cup from 13 teams in 1930 to 48 teams beginning from the 2026 edition to be jointly hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
FIFA’s journey has equally reflected football’s growing influence beyond sport, with the game becoming a major tool for diplomacy, social inclusion, youth empowerment, and economic development across the world.
As FIFA celebrates 122 years of existence, attention is now focused on the future of the game, technological innovations, expanded competitions, women’s football growth, and the continued globalisation of football.
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UEFA has issued a lifetime ban to Petr Vlachovsky, a Czech women’s soccer coach who secretly filmed his players, the governing body announced on Tuesday.
Czech media reported that the coach was convicted in May 2025 and initially received a suspended one-year prison sentence and a five-year domestic coaching ban for filming FC Slovacko’s players in changing rooms, the youngest of whom was 17.
In a statement, UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) said it had decided to ban Vlachovsky “from exercising any football-related activity for life” following the appointment of an Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector to investigate allegations of potential misconduct.
“The CEDB further decided to request FIFA to extend the abovementioned ban on a worldwide level and to order the Football Association of the Czech Republic to revoke Mr Petr Vlachovsky’s coaching licence,” the statement added.
FC Slovacko did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Football players’ union FIFPRO welcomed the ban as well as UEFA’s request for world soccer governing body FIFA to impose an international ban on Vlachovsky.
“This outcome sends a strong and necessary message that abusive and inappropriate behaviour has no place in football and that safeguarding the well-being of players must remain a priority at every level of the game,” FIFPRO added in a statement.
Vlachovsky had also previously served as coach of the Czech women’s Under-19s team.
RELATED STORY: https://sportsvillagesquare.com/2026/04/08/outrage-as-male-coach-who-secretly-filmed-women-players-still-free-to-work-in-football/
-Reuters
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Southampton have been kicked out of the Championship playoff final after being found guilty of spying on semi-final opponents Middlesbrough, the English Football League said on Tuesday.
Middlesbrough, who lost 2-1 to Southampton on aggregate in the semi, have been reinstated and will face Hull City on Saturday in what is dubbed the world’s richest soccer match.
Promotion to the Premier League, even with an immediate relegation, is estimated to be worth in the region of 200 million pounds ($268.10 million) over three seasons.
Southampton, who admitted the charges, were also found guilty of filming training sessions involving Oxford United in December and Ipswich Town in April during the regular season.
They have also been deducted four points from the start of next season in England’s second tier.
“An Independent Disciplinary Commission has today expelled Southampton from the Championship play-offs after the club admitted multiple breaches of EFL regulations related to the unauthorised filming of other clubs’ training,” the EFL said.
“Southampton admitted breaches of Regulations requiring Clubs to act with the utmost good faith and prohibiting the observation of another Club’s training session within 72 hours of a scheduled match.
“The effect of today’s order is that Middlesbrough are reinstated into the 2026 play-offs and will proceed to the play-off final against Hull City. The final remains scheduled for Saturday 23 May, with the kick-off time to be confirmed.”
The EFL confirmed that Southampton could appeal against the decision and that “parties are working to try and resolve any appeal on Wednesday 20 May.
“Subject to the outcome, it could result in a further change to Saturday’s fixture,” the statement said.
‘BORO CALLED FOR SOUTHAMPTON EXPULSION
Middlesbrough had called for Southampton’s expulsion after having a training session at their Rockliffe Park site filmed 48 hours ahead of the first leg of their playoff semi-final with Southampton which ended 0-0.
The north-east club said they welcomed the decision.
“We believe this sends out a clear message for the future of our game regarding sporting integrity and conduct,” the north Middlesbrough said in a statement.
“As a club, we are now focused on our game against Hull City at Wembley on Saturday.”
Southampton were relegated from the Premier League last season and were struggling in the early part of this campaign until a storming finish in which they went unbeaten in 19 league games to finish fourth and enter the playoffs.
The south-coast club are the first to fall foul of the Football League’s regulation 127 — brought in after Leeds United were found guilty of spying on Derby County seven years ago, an offence for which they were fined 200,000 pounds.
-Reuters
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