White House wants FIFA to change transgender policy, with Women's World Cup guarantees on the line [View all]

The White House wants FIFA to follow the lead of the International Olympic Committee by issuing a policy that would bar transgender athletes from competing professionally in women’s soccer — with President Donald Trump yet to sign off on required government guarantees for a United States-led bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 2031.

Trump has sought to clamp down on the involvement of transgender athletes in women’s sports since returning to office for a second term, and signed an executive order in February 2025, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, to stop athletes from competing in women’s sports unless they were assigned female at birth.

In March, The Athletic reported that FIFA’s approval for a joint bid by the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and Jamaica had been pushed back from the FIFA congress on April 30 until much later in the year. This was largely because the White House has yet to provide any of the government guarantees — including commitments on visas, tax exemptions, safety and security — that are deemed obligatory for a World Cup bid to progress.

The guarantees are ordinarily processed through the host soccer federation — in this case, U.S. Soccer — before being passed on as part of the bidding package to FIFA.

https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/white-house-wants-fifa-change-091605333.html