Next week a 17-year-old girl, possibly autistic, will face a disciplinary hearing at the Football Association for improper conduct. Her alleged offence is that in a women’s match she asked a player on the other team: “Are you a bloke?”
She’s in trouble because the player in question is indeed male, but identifies as a woman. That means an adult male is playing teenage girls who have not signed up for mixed football, and they’re the ones who get it in the neck if they dare to question this.
Seems far-fetched, doesn’t it? But the FA’s policy is that “transgender women” – that is, male players who say they are women – may play on women’s teams if they reduce their testosterone. It calls this inclusion. The Scottish and Welsh football associations have similar policies.
Football is a physical game. If you’re not prepared for contact, you should probably not be on the pitch. But we are hearing from female players, parents and coaches all over the country about how the presence of one or more male players with a transgender identity is ruining the women’s game.
Often the male player is in goal, where height and reach – and intimidating bulk – make a massive difference. No female striker wants to catch an accidental punch from a keeper with these physical advantages, as one recently did, it was reported to me.
The FA does not allow mixed football over the age of fourteen. This is for safety. But it has approved more than seventy adult males to play with and against women, on the basis that they feel like women.
The problem is that, whatever their own feelings, those male players bring their male advantage onto the football field. How could they not? Feeling like a woman and reducing their testosterone doesn’t undo the powerful effects of testosterone at puberty, when boys become men.
The UK sports councils said as much as when they issued guidance on transgender inclusion three years ago. Their report said allowing male players into the women’s category cannot be balanced with fairness for women, or – in some sports – with women’s safety.
Women who’ve faced such players say it makes a mockery of the game. Like for like, men run about 10% faster than women. The player who is one pace ahead is always going to get the ball.
Shoulder to shoulder, men are on average twice as strong as women of the same size. Usually men are bigger too. No amount of skill and tactics can compensate for lacking these advantages. With them, one outfield player in a team can dominate the play.
Women tell us they are afraid to tackle male players in case they get hurt. These are otherwise fearless women who play with skill and flair. But they can’t risk being brought down by a much stronger, heavier player. They have day jobs. They can’t risk being hurt so badly that they aren’t able to travel to work, or indeed to work at all.
To add insult to possible injury, women are not allowed to express their concerns or even to ask whether it’s fair. The 17-year-old girl facing a disciplinary is not the only case. Other teams with transgender players have complained to the FA if an opponent dares to question the presence of an obviously male player in a women’s team.
They say this is discrimination or harassment. On recent form, the FA seems to be siding with those seeking to silence women. You can see that someone is male, but if you don’t play along with the claim that he is a woman you’ll be in big trouble.
The FA claims that 2.6 million women and girls play football in England. It says that in that context, seventy two “transwomen” is not many. But every one of those male players affects many women, both on the pitch and off it. Every weekend hundreds, maybe thousands, of female players face unfair and possibly unsafe play.
And then they have to undress and shower in a changing room where male players who identify as women might walk in because the FA rules entitle them to do anything the women can do. Most “transwomen” have no medical treatment or surgery, so those players will look just like ordinary men.
Women are losing fairness and safety. They’re losing privacy too. And with the FA disciplining players over this, women are losing the right even to say so.
Fiona McAnena is the Director of Campaigns at the human rights charity Sex Matters.
