An 8-year-old girl was disqualified from a soccer tournament on Sunday after organizers insisted she is a boy, and former U.S. Women’s National Team captain Abby Wambach is furious about it.
According to WOWT 6, youth soccer officials in Springfield, Neb., disqualified 8-year-old Mili Hernandez’s team after she helped lead them to the finals of the Springfield Soccer Club girls tournament. Officials believed Mili was a boy because of her short haircut, and they were not convinced otherwise even after her family showed them an insurance card.
Mili, who plays for the 11-year-old team because she is such a good player, was devastated.
“She was crying after they told us… They made her cry,” Mili’s father Gerardo Hernandez told WOWT. “It’s what she likes. It’s what she always wants to do – play soccer.”
Mili said she likes having her hair short and was upset that her entire team was disqualified because of it.
“When my hair starts to grow I put it short because I’ve always had short hair,” she explained. “I didn’t like my hair long. … Just because I look like a boy doesn’t mean I am a boy. They don’t have a reason to kick the whole club out.”
Like many others, Wambach is outraged.
Tournament organizers said Mili’s family can challenge the disqualification by appealing with the Nebraska State Soccer Commission, but the issue seems a lot greater than that. Telling a young girl she can’t play in a tournament because of the way she looks is as low as it gets.
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