The FA finally sees sense:
English football chiefs have announced that transgender women will be banned from playing in women’s matches at all levels of the game from June 1.
The FA had put in place a policy on April 1 that allowed transgender women to play in amateur women’s competitions if they had had reduced testosterone levels for at least a year, but it has revised the regulations in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the legal definition of “woman”.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is expected to adopt the same policy at a meeting of its directors on Friday.
The FA said: “The Supreme Court’s ruling on the 16 April means that we will be changing our policy. Transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England, and this policy will be implemented from June 1, 2025.
“We understand that this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify, and we are contacting the registered transgender women currently playing to explain the changes and how they can continue to stay involved in the game.”
It added: “As the governing body of the national sport, our role is to make football accessible to as many people as possible, operating within the law and international football policy defined by Uefa and Fifa.
“Our current policy, which allows transgender women to participate in the women’s game, was based on this principle and supported by expert legal advice.
“This is a complex subject, and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football then we would review it and change it if necessary.”
It's not a complex subject. It could hardly be less complex, but the old "complex" excuse is always trotted out to justify their inertia. Men shouldn't be playing in women's football. Simple as that. Now they're moving in the right direction, but with as little grace as possible. The poor men who can no longer have fun competing with women who are much less strong and fast as muscular as them are the ones who get all the sympathy – those men who "want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify". Far more sympathy than the women ever got.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, said: “This is welcome but long overdue. The FA has had ample evidence of the harms to women and girls caused by its nonsensical policy of letting men who identify as women play in women’s teams. The requirement to lower their testosterone tells you that everyone knew they were not women.
“Thankfully, the UK Supreme Court has now confirmed this, saying it is lawful to exclude ‘all men, including trans women, regardless of their GRC status’.
“Every other sporting body now needs to re-establish a genuine women’s category, and this shameful period in history will finally be brought to an end.”
Added:
My official comment for all occasions, moving forward. https://t.co/xSKdvekPaU
— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) May 1, 2025
Mick Hartley 
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