Trans women to be barred from women's football in England, FA says

1 May 2025, 11:00

Transgender women will be prevented from playing in women's football from June 1, the Football Association (FA) has announced.

It comes after the Supreme Court earlier this month ruled that 'woman' refers to biological sex under equality laws, excluding transgender women from the definition.

"Woman" and "sex" refer to a biological woman and biological sex in the Equality Act 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision.

The FA said it had updated its policy in light of last month’s UK Supreme Court ruling.

The governing body’s transgender inclusion policy had been updated just before to that ruling.

It and continued to allow transgender women to play in women’s football if they reduced testosterone levels.

Those rule changes gave the FA ultimate discretion on permitting a trans woman to play, with consideration given to safety and fairness issues.

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Now though the FA has gone further and barred transgender women from the women’s game.

“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, 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 said in a statement.

Activist groups, trade unions and charities took to Parliament Square earlier this month for an “emergency demonstration” after the Supreme Court declared trans women are not women in the eyes of the law.

The ruling means trans women cannot use single-sex female toilets, changing rooms or compete in women’s sports, according to the head of Britain’s equalities watchdog.

Activists demanded “trans liberation” and “trans rights now”, with some waving flags and holding banners.

Following the decision, LGBTQ+ activist group Stone Wall said: “Yesterday’s UK Supreme Court ruling marks a deeply concerning moment, with widespread and harmful implications for our communities.

Speaking to LBC, Melanie Field, an independent adviser on equality and human rights, who oversaw the Equality Act's drafting and passage through Westminster in 2010, has called for calm but warned this recent decision could be at odds with the act’s original goals.

She told LBC’s Paul Brand the legislation was meant to give transgender people with gender recognition certificates (GRCs) the same legal status as so-called “biological” men or women.

She said it was the “very clear” goal of the act that trans women with GRCs would be seen as women in the eyes of the law.This will no longer be the case following the Supreme Court ruling.