Well, well, well. The ramifications of the Supreme Court’s ruling on single-sex spaces are beginning to be seen. It transpires that transwomen are to be banned from playing women’s football in both England and Scotland. The judgment from the highest court in the land that backed the biological definition of a woman put pressure on the Football Association to clarify its position and step in line with other national bodies that allow only those born female to take part in women’s competitions.
The decision by England’s Football Association follows the move in Scotland, which saw the Scottish FA update its guidance to stop those born as males from taking part in the female game. At the start of April, the English body launched a case-by-case policy which stopped short of a blanket ban. Despite this it still faced criticism for not reaching today’s decision sooner, with former FA chair Lord Triesman blasting the organisation for having a shown a ‘foolhardy contempt for the law’, adding: ‘A decent administrator would devise inclusive competition rules for trans women’s football in minutes; but it would never be as part of women’s football.’
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