U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to block transgender athletes from participating in the 2031 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) women's World Cup.
The British newspaper Express reported on the 9th (Korea time), "The U.S. White House is requesting a ban on transgender athletes from women's soccer competitions. Trump is pushing strongly to limit transgender athletes' participation in women's sports and has already asked FIFA," the report said.
According to the outlet, the White House is pressuring FIFA to follow the International Olympic Committee's approach and restrict the participation of transgender athletes. The 2031 women's World Cup is expected to be held in North America, but President Trump has not yet approved government guarantees because of issues with the gender regulations.
Express said, "Since regaining power, Trump has made limiting transgender athletes' participation in women's sports a top priority. Last year he signed an executive order on 'excluding males from women's sports.' Under it, unless a person was designated female at birth, they cannot participate in women's sports," it explained.
Now Trump wants FIFA to follow the same path. The United States has submitted a sole bid to host the 2031 women's World Cup along with Mexico, Jamaica and Costa Rica. Therefore, because the White House has considerable negotiating power, it is not something FIFA can easily ignore.
Express noted, "Before the U.S. government signs guarantees related to hosting the World Cup, it wants FIFA to agree to a policy banning transgender participation. Such guarantees are essential for a country to be selected to host the World Cup. However, despite hosting the men's World Cup this year, the United States has reportedly delayed fulfilling this obligation."
Andrew Julia, head of the White House World Cup task force, said, "President Trump's leadership has set a new standard for protecting the integrity of women's sports. His decisive action codified that it is U.S. policy to oppose males competing as competitors in women's sports from the perspectives of safety, fairness, dignity and integrity."
He also publicly pressured FIFA, saying, "We urge the global sports community to follow this principle and ensure that female athletes can compete fairly during this golden era."
In fact, recent international sports developments have seen increasing cases of restrictions on transgender athletes' participation similar to the U.S. government's request. The IOC last month introduced mandatory genetic testing, effectively banning transgender athletes from women's events. The IOC said this is a "measure to protect the fairness, safety and integrity of women's events."
This regulation will also limit the participation of athletes with certain differences in sex development (DSD) and transgender women athletes. It will not apply to recreational sports and is scheduled to take effect from the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.
World Athletics, which governs track and field events, introduced similar regulations in July 2025. Meanwhile, FIFA has been reviewing gender participation criteria for about four years, but aside from the 2011 gender verification regulations (with no testosterone standard), it has not issued additional guidelines.
For now, FIFA has postponed the scheduled approval of the joint bid to host the 2031 women's World Cup from the originally planned April 30 meeting to later this year. The Athletic said, "U.S. Soccer Federation insiders said consultations with relevant departments are progressing positively," noting, "the situation is still developing, and because this issue involves both politics and sports regulations, it could have a major impact on international soccer in the future."
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