Mick Hartley

Oliver Brown in the Telegraph:

Lord Triesman, the former chairman of the Football Association, has said he is “deeply concerned” that the governing body he used to lead is “not providing women and girls with fair, safe sport” because of its policy of allowing biological males to compete in the female category.

In a sharply critical letter to Debbie Hewitt and Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chair and chief executive respectively, Lord Triesman, who served as the organisation’s first independent chairman from 2008 to 2010, argues that his successors’ approach is not only compromising the integrity of women’s football but creating an atmosphere where many people feel frightened even to speak up about their concerns.

“I am deeply concerned that the FA is not providing all women and girls with fair, safe football because of its policy allowing male players – those with XY chromosomes, but a transgender identity – to play in the women’s game,” Lord Triesman writes.

“This has led to significant problems of concern to people in football and, I estimate, a majority of parliamentarians. There is compelling evidence showing how even an individual trans-identifying male player can adversely impact a significant number of female players. It is especially problematic to see that even raising questions about this can lead to disciplinary action. This means that women and girls cannot expect fairness and cannot even raise a question if they see a male player who may or may not claim a transgender identity.

“Many other sports including athletics, swimming and cycling have, with some difficulty, amended their eligibility rules to protect the female category and its sporting integrity. This leaves football as by far the biggest sport not to have done so. As a contact sport, I would suggest the risks are self-evident.”…

The FA has been under significant pressure to change its stance since last December, when it received a letter from more than 70 MPs and members of the House of Lords – including Lord Triesman – demanding urgent action to protect women from the injury risks of playing against biological males. After Telegraph Sport’s revelation that at least four women’s teams in the Sheffield and Hallamshire League were refusing to play against Francesca Needham, a trans-identifying male accused of causing a season-ending injury to an opponent, MPs ordered the FA to “show leadership” and to abandon its position of allowing those born male to register to play in their “affirmed gender”….

The FA said that it was happy to discuss its policy with Lord Triesman. It has consistently defended its position, saying in a statement earlier this year: “Our current transgender policy has been in place for 10 years, and it has helped to enable a very small population of transgender women to enjoy playing football safely in the grass-roots game. This is a complex and constantly evolving area, and our review remains ongoing as we monitor and support the practical application of our policy.

Ooh, so smug, these people – and so self-righteous. A "very small population of transgender women" – who can still adversely affect a very large number of real women – "enjoy playing football safely" – while the women can't enjoy playing football safely because they're playing against men. In women's football, this is – which was specifically set up so they wouldn't have to play against bigger, stronger, faster, men.

And of course it's not a complex area at all. It couldn't be simpler. No men in women's football.