Women playing football in England and Scotland are to be protected from men pretending to be women. The welcome move follows the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the definition of ‘woman’.
The English Football Association has announced that only true women will be allowed to play in women’s matches from 1st June. In Scotland, a revised policy for competitive matches is set to be introduced at the beginning of the 2025/26 season.
Currently, men in both countries can compete in women’s football on a case-by-case basis involving the reduction of testosterone levels.
Writing in The Daily Mail, former Olympian Sharron Davies MBE said: “Women and girls should never have had to fight for their right to play football, run, swim – whatever their choice of sport is – in a fair and safe way.
“Yet it has taken a Supreme Court judgment for public bodies and sporting organisations to wake up to what I and other campaigners have been saying for years. That it is not fair nor right to allow men to compete in women’s sport.”
She emphasised: “It is a fact that the impact of testosterone cannot be reversed. It is a fact that men have better bone density. It is a fact that men are built differently from women. It is a fact that they punch harder and are stronger than women.”
“So allowing men to compete against women immediately puts women and girls at a disadvantage both physically and mentally. And yet there are still competitive sports in the UK that allow male-born athletes to compete against women. ”