England’s Football Association (The FA) will let players who were born male play in women’s soccer “on a case-by-case basis,” reports suggest. The policy, starting April 1st, was first conveyed to teams and officials before being discreetly published online.
Despite calls for an outright ban on ‘trans’ women (i.e. men) in women’s football, there is instead now a formal FA process in place for deciding on whether to exclude them individually.
Such participation—barely ever mirrored by ‘transmen’ in male-dominated sports—has many critics, who point to safety and fairness concerns. Women at all levels of participation oppose their spaces being taken over, as seen recently when two male-born pool players contested the final of a women’s pool tournament.
