Transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England from June 1, the FA has confirmed.
The governing body said last month that it would be applying stricter eligibility criteria for transgender women to continue playing in women’s football.
But following the UK Supreme Court’s ruling that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex, the FA has scrapped their policy and replaced it with a complete ban.
In a statement confirming their decision, the FA said: “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.
“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 1 June 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.”
The FA’s announcement follows the decision of their Scottish counterparts that only players who were female at birth will be allowed to play in women’s football over the age of 13.
No known transgender women are currently playing professionally and recent reports say that there are only 20 currently registered with women’s clubs at grassroots level in England.
The Supreme Court’s ruling said that the terms “woman” and “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act “refer to a biological woman and biological sex.” Other governing bodies across sport, including cricket, are reviewing their policies following the ruling.
Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle in an unbeatable new deal that saves £192 and includes 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
