Donations double for pool body sued by transgender player | MSN

Donations have doubled in a day for the legal defence of a pool federation being sued by a banned transgender player.

The amount pledged to the crowdfunding page of the English Blackball Pool Federation (EBPF) has soared from around £6,600 to more than £13,000.

The money was pledged after Telegraph Sport highlighted that the ruling body had been seeking financial support amid fears the costs involved in the case would prove beyond its means.

Harriet Haynes is suing the EBPF for discrimination after it banned players born male from competing in women’s events. She claims it led her to suffer a “loss of opportunity” and “injured feelings”.

As the case has entered its fourth day, Canterbury County Court was due to hear evidence from the transgender goalkeeper who caused a storm in women’s football after Haynes called her as an expert witness.

Blair Hamilton, who is an academic affiliated with Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Brighton and the Tavistock NHS Gender Identity Clinic, was expected to endorse Haynes’s claims.

In August, Telegraph Sport reported how Sutton United, who appointed Lucy Clark as the first trans manager in the top five tiers of the English female game, had provoked controversy by signing Hamilton for their women’s team.

Source: Donations double for pool body sued by transgender player