Female athletes playing volleyball | Image Credits: IMAGO / Addictive Stock
The Albanian Volleyball Federation has suspended a female player from one of the country's top clubs after rival teams raised doubts about her gender without providing evidence, according to interviews with the player, her club and documents seen by Reuters.
Brazilian Nayara Ferreira, 32, plays for Dinamo, currently second in the Albanian women’s volleyball league, but has missed several games since October after the federation said she must take a gender test at a specific laboratory to prove she was a woman.
"The world collapsed around me," Ferreira said in an interview in her apartment on the outskirts of Tirana. "No one had ever questioned my gender before. Why are they doing this only to me?"
The suspension came after complaints from two rival clubs, Vllaznia and Pogradeci, alleging that she might be male or was using hormone therapy to enhance her performance.
Neither the federation nor the clubs have publicly provided evidence to back up these claims, which Ferreira and her club say are baseless. An official at Pogradeci declined to comment. Vllaznia could not be reached for comment.
The Albanian Volleyball Federation did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In a letter, seen by Reuters, sent to the club on October 6, it said it planned to carry out tests "to verify the player’s natural physical performance and determine her gender".
On October 13, the federation said she should appear at a laboratory for a test two days later. Ferreira refused to appear and was suspended. She said that she has voluntarily done a test at another clinic to privately prove her gender to her club, the results of which are expected in the coming days.
The International Volleyball Federation, which oversees all forms of the game worldwide, said it was aware of the case and had been in touch with Ferreira and the Albanian federation.
It said each national federation was responsible for applying its own eligibility rules for domestic competitions and did not give an opinion on the case.
Ferreira, who previously played in Saudi Arabia and has competed across Europe, has been in Albania for about two months. She says she fears for her safety since the allegations emerged in local media.
"I don't feel safe anymore, every time I go in the streets I think: maybe something will happen," she said.
Her teammates and coach fear that her absence will jeopardise their chances of winning the title. They also worry about the impact this will have on girls considering a career in sports in Albania - a majority-Muslim Balkan country.
"The situation is very serious," said her coach, Orlando Koja as his players trained this week without Ferreira. "The girls and I are giving Nayara a lot of support. We are people of the court and we don't want to deal with gossip."
