The Football Association should consider banning transgender women from playing women’s football to remove any “unfair” competitive advantage, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has told Sky News.
The FA’s current transgender policy is that “gender identity should not be a barrier to participation in football” but eligibility is determined on a case-by-case basis.
Ms Frazer was discussing the transgender policy in light of issues that the football regulator could be asked to intervene on – if the change to football governance passes through parliament.
Asked further if she was urging football to follow other sports who have restricted women’s sport to those female at birth, Ms Frazer said: “I would encourage competitive sport to consider this very carefully.”
The FA had no immediate comment but its chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said earlier this month that they were waiting on international football bodies to decide on any changes to the policy.
World Athletics last year decided to prioritise sporting fairness over inclusivity by excluding those assigned male at birth from competing in female world ranking competitions.
The International Cricket Council also changed its policy last year so male-to-female players who have been through any form of male puberty will not be eligible to take part in the international women’s game regardless of any surgery or gender reassignment treatment they may have undertaken.
Source: FA urged by government to consider banning transgender women from playing women’s football
Rather than twist the English language into more and more torturous contortions, FA should simply ban men playing in women’s sport.
It’s time we took back our language and insisted on grammatically correct English.
Just my opinion…