The Football Association and England Netball have banned transgender women from women’s teams on a day when the effects of the supreme court ruling on single-sex spaces rippled through sport.
The governing body of cricket, the England and Wales Cricket Board, will do likewise when it meets on Friday, with an insider telling the Guardian “the legal advice is that we will have to follow a similar route”.
Sports bodies took legal advice in the wake of last month’s supreme court ruling, which said the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman.
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The FA’s announcement came only a month after it had said it would continue to allow transgender women, who have undergone male puberty, to play in the women’s game as long as they reduced their testosterone levels to 5 nmol/L for at least 12 months.
However its U-turn came after advice from KCs that it had to fundamentally alter its policy after the court ruling.
“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 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 1 June 2025.”
Campaigners have long called for football to follow sports such as rugby union and hockey and restrict women’s sport to those born female, citing safety and fairness concerns. However the FA, along with netball and cricket, has also stressed the importance of being inclusive to those transgender women who wanted to play in the female category.
After announcing its policy change, the FA promised it would reach out to the 20 or so transgender women it will affect.
“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,” it said. “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 decision was welcomed by a Downing Street spokesperson, who said that while it was up to each sport to set their policies, they had to comply with the law.
“We have been clear that biology matters when it comes to women’s sport, that everyone should be compliant with the law,” he said. “And we will continue to ensure women and girls across the country can enjoy sports and we will continue to support bodies to protect the integrity, fairness and safety of the game.”
England Netball also confirmed that it would be banning transgender women from female sport from 1 September, but said a “mixed netball” game would be available to everyone.
“The female category will be exclusively for players born female, irrespective of their gender identity, whilst mixed netball will serve as the sport’s inclusive category, allowing players to compete under the gender with which they identify,” it said.
“This new policy is designed to prioritise and uphold fairness on court within the female category.”
English cricket currently allows transgender women to compete in the female category at grassroots level. However, it will change that policy on Friday.
The decision of the FA and England Netball was welcomed by the campaign group Sex Matters, which has called for clarity about biological sex in law and life.
“This is welcome but long overdue,” said Fiona McAnena, Sex Matters’ director of campaigns. “Every other sporting body now needs to re-establish a genuine women’s category. Anyone who cares about women and girls in sport will see that this is the right thing to do.”
Meanwhile the campaign group SEEN in Sport, which represents players and coaches who believe in biological sex in sport, said that more should have been done earlier. “It has been a failure of leadership for them to ignore the legitimate concerns of the people who care about the integrity of the women’s game,” it added.
However, the LGBT+ charity Stonewall was critical of the FA’s decision, and a similar one made by the Scottish FA on Tuesday. “The FA and Scottish FA’s decision to ban trans women from women’s football has been made too soon, before the implications of the Supreme Court’s ruling has been worked through by lawyers and politicians or become law,” it said.
“It is incredibly disappointing, especially as the FA has been a long term and vocal supporter of our Rainbow Laces campaign advocating for inclusion in sport for all ages and at all levels of the game.”
