Julius OkorieIn a major policy shift, transgender women are to be banned from participating in Women’s game in England effective June 1, 2025, the FA has announced.
This follows a landmark Supreme Court ruling on April 16. The FA explained that it’s previous policy—allowing transgender women to compete in women’s football—was based on its core principle of accessibility and was backed by expert legal advice.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelHowever, the recent Supreme Court ruling has prompted a reassessment. “This is a complex subject,” the FA said in a statement, “and our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or how the policy operated at the grassroots level, we would review and change it if necessary.”
The FA acknowledged the emotional impact of the decision, noting that it understands “this will be difficult for people who simply want to play the game they love in the gender by which they identify.”
The association said it is reaching out to registered transgender women currently playing to explain the policy change and discuss ways they can remain involved in the sport.
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The move aligns the FA with evolving international and legal standards set by UEFA and FIFA, though it is expected to spark considerable debate over inclusion and fairness in competitive sport.
Some analysts and stakeholders have posited that transgender women have an edge over their non-transgender peers which by implication means competing in the same sports give one an advantage over the other. Under such situation the resultant result of such competitions cannot be said to fair.
A new study indicates that trans women retain athletic edge after a year of hormone therapy.
Results published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, could mean the current one-year waiting period for Olympic athletes who are transitioning is inadequate.
“For the Olympic level, the elite level, I’d say probably two years is more realistic than one year,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Timothy Roberts, a pediatrician and the director of the adolescent medicine training program at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri. “At one year, the trans women on average still have an advantage over the cis women,” he said, referring to cisgender, or non-transgender, women.
As the FA reach out to athletes involved with a view to ensuring they also continue to enjoy sports, there are suggestions that the solution may lie in creating their own exclusive championships to ensure fairness, as the issue is not just in England but also cuts across all sports globally.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
