Posted June 07, 2017 08:29:51

Photo: Mili Hernandez's parents provided documents to prove she was a girl, but organisers were not convinced. (AP: WOWT NBC Omaha)

The Nebraska State Soccer Association is investigating how a youth football tournament disqualified a team after misidentifying an 8-year-old girl as a boy.

The association apologised to Mili Hernandez, who said her team was disqualified from the Springfield Invitational because she looks like a boy.

Omaha's Azzuri Cachorros girls club football team had advanced to a Springfield tournament's semi-finals when it was suddenly disqualified over the weekend.

Mili told Omaha's WOWT-TV that tournament organisers thought she was a boy because of her short hair.

"Just because I look like a boy doesn't mean I am a boy," she said.

"They don't have a reason to kick the whole club out."

Former US football stars Abby Wambach and Mia Hamm offered support to Mili on social media.

Wambach said she won championships with short hair, and Hamm invited Mili to one of her soccer camps.

The Nebraska State Soccer Association said in a statement that the Springfield football club's decision to disqualify Mili's team did not represent the association's core values of teamwork and inclusion.

The Springfield club told WOWT that a misprint in the team's roster identified Mili as a boy.

Her family brought several forms of identification, including her insurance card and a doctor's physical form, to prove she's a girl, but the team was still disqualified.

Teach coach Mario Torres told KMTV in Omaha that tournament officials did not handle a clerical mistake properly.

"Even if it was a mistake, they did not need to humiliate her or kick the entire team off the field," Torres said.

The state association said it did not oversee the Springfield tournament, but that it will work directly with clubs and tournament officials to ensure nothing like this happens again.

AP

Topics: soccer, sport, united-states