In May 2025, the Football Association confirmed that transgender women would no longer be able to play in women’s football from June 1. The Scottish FA have made the same decision, with their ban coming into effect from the beginning of the 2025/26 season.
The decision followed a change in the law announced by the UK Supreme Court on April 16, which unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equality law.
A statement from the FA called it a “complex subject” and said “our position has always been that if there was a material change in law, science, or the operation of the policy in grassroots football, then we would review it and change it if necessary.”
The ban affects between 20-30 transgender women who are currently affiliated with the FA – none of whom are professional footballers.
Transgender players, St Pauli captain Jackson Irvine, a sports reporter and a sports law professor have told Sky Sports News‘ podcast Real Talk what the ban means for the future of football in a special episode that focuses on those impacted by the decision.
The debate around trans inclusion in sport has become hugely divisive, with high profile people from outside of sport also weighing in on the conversation. And while the FA’s ban will affect fewer than 30 players, for many of them, the impact will be life-changing.
‘Football was a coping mechanism’
Dr Blair Hamilton is a researcher in sports medicine at Manchester Metropolitan University and was the lead investigator of the “Sporting Performance of Athletes of the Gender Spectrum” study at the University of Brighton.
She is also one of the most high-profile transgender players in women’s football, having played at Sutton United, Saltdean United, Hastings FC and most recently, Manchester Laces.
A day after the FA announced their ban – and five years earlier than she was planning to – 35-year-old Hamilton retired from football.
“I don’t think it’s hit properly. The FA have said football is for all – it’s not for all anymore,” Hamilton told Sky Sports News‘ podcast Real Talk. “It’s going to have a big personal impact. Football gave me all those positives. It was a coping mechanism… It’s given me a family.
“There’s a very exclusionary message that women don’t want transgender people, or especially transgender women in women’s sport. I don’t think that’s the case. Women’s football is one of the most inclusive spaces around.”
As a footballer, Hamilton is hurt. But as an academic researcher, she is frustrated by the way in which wider societal debates, that she believes are too polarised, are entering the women’s football space.
‘People shout from either side’
Hamilton continued: “So far to date, in any sort of scientific study, there have only been 34 transgender athletes sampled in four studies. None of them have been footballers. So it’s a very young area of science that has hardly settled.
“People shout from either side. It’s about community and human rights.
“Inclusive sport is possible. The [2010] Equality Act hasn’t changed. Transgender people still have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment. Is there something that’s less discriminatory than a full ban that football can do?”
On the day the FA announced their ban, they sent transgender players in the women’s game an email which offered six free online therapy sessions and said that they hoped the players would still want to stay in the game.
It read: “You might be willing to consider moving your enjoyment of affiliated football into coaching or being a match official, we welcome that and there are routes to do this.”
Hamilton told Sky Sports the offer of therapy is disappointing, while officiating might well be considered an equally alienating space.
She said: “Mental health wise, for me, that’s not going to work because you’re just opening yourself up to more discrimination. Referees are already [some] of the most discriminated against people in football so why would we go there?
“I think it’s a big thing that they’ve realised they’re producing harm in this. If you realise you’ve done harm, you need to support these athletes long-term, not just for six sessions.”
Other transgender players and LGBTQ+ allies have raised concerns with the news.
‘Not aligned with our culture and purpose’ – the FA
A few days after the FA’s ban was announced, 100 members of Goal Diggers football club in east London walked 20k from their training pitches in Haggerston to Wembley, to oppose the ban and deliver a letter signed by over 1,600 people and addressed to the FA’s CEO Mark Bullingham.
Goal Diggers FC raised over £10,000 from the walk – half of which will go to the club, with the other half going towards trans charity Not a Phase. The letter they delivered describes the decision to ban transgender women from football as “pitiful and weak” and calls on the FA to reverse its decision.
During the walk, transgender player Sammy Rees told Sky Sports News “as a trans woman playing football, my passion, my hobby, my life, has just been ripped out from under my feet.
“You get out of bed every day, you check your phone and every day it’s the news demonising you, humiliating you, taking away your identity and questioning your existence. It’s just horrible.”
Another transgender player, Paula Griffin, transitioned after having cancer in 2019. “It made me re-evaluate my life completely. I came out as transgender and at the time I never thought I’d play football again,” she said.
“I found Goal Diggers, I started playing the game again. Thanks to the community around me, I’m a better person.”
During Goal Diggers’ walk to Wembley, the FA’s CEO Bullingham responded to their letter in an email.
It read: “We understand how difficult this decision will be for people who want to play football in the gender by which they identify, and we are aware of the significant impact this will have on them. One of our main aims is to get as many people playing football as possible in a safe and enjoyable environment.
“However, following the Supreme Court ruling on April 16, we have had to make this very difficult decision. Depriving any community of the opportunity to play is not aligned with our culture and purpose, and we are very aware of the hurt and disappointment this will cause. However, whilst our driving purpose is to make football available and accessible for all, as the national governing body we have to operate within the framework of UK law.”
Goad Diggers FC told Sky Sports News they will pull out of FA-affiliated leagues in order to keep their club as trans-inclusive as possible.
Current and ex-professionals have their say
High profile players in the women’s game have been speaking out about this, too.
Manchester City’s Kerstin Casparij kissed her trans flag-coloured wristband after scoring a goal in a WSL match against Everton on April 20, a few days after the UK Supreme Court ruled that the legal definition of a woman under the Equality Act 2010 was based on “biology” alone.
Former Arsenal and Chelsea player, Anita Asante who won 71 caps for England, spoke out about the issue the day after the ban was announced, saying “now is not the time to be silent” as she collected the Game Changer award at the Women’s Football Awards in London.
“I think it’s important to remember, we’re talking about being inclusive… We’ve got to make sure we don’t marginalise anybody, so let’s keep supporting people,” Asante said during her speech.
The only professional men’s player to speak publicly about the FA’s ban so far is Jackson Irvine, who currently captains St Pauli in the Bundesliga and has played for Celtic, Kilmarnock and Hull, among others.
Speaking exclusively on Real Talk, Irvine said the ban was “worrying” and “felt rash.”
“Football always felt like the place where we wouldn’t be so heavy-handed,” he said. “Especially in the immediate aftermath of a really worrying decision for trans people in the country.
“It was really disappointing, especially from a federation that has supported Rainbow Laces campaigns and has been very clear in their rhetoric about football being for all.”
Irvine, who has played for Australia since 2012 and is the current president of Professional Footballers Australia (PFA), added: “football has the tendency to be more measured and tackle issues in a more pragmatic approach.
“It felt like we’d made such progress and visibility in the queer community and for trans people. I didn’t feel like there was much of a public display of support or allyship across the men’s game.
“I would like to see more people stand up against it when we try to take rights away from our fellow footballers and try to do everything we can to make sure that everyone who plays our game has a safe and inclusive space to play.”
Man City goalkeeper Katie Startup told the Observer that “fighting for inclusion and equal opportunities is an inextricable part of the identity of women’s football.”
She was being interviewed by Observer sports reporter Jessy Parker Humphreys, who has been covering stories on transgender inclusion and women’s sport for several years. Parker Humphreys believes the ban was particularly disappointing given the FA’s previously “liberal” and “admirable” stance.
‘A fairness and safety issue’
But what do those in favour of the FA’s ban say?
In November 2024, a protest of 100 people took place outside Wembley, before England men played a UEFA Nations League game against the Republic of Ireland.
The protest was sparked by the banning of a teenage girl over comments she made to a transgender woman in a grassroots football game. The teenager was found to have repeatedly asked the transgender player “are you a man?”.
The teenager, Cerys Vaughan, who is now 18-years-old and has waived her anonymity, was banned for six matches, four of which were suspended, for discrimination by the FA.
This month, Vaughan told BBC Sport she had been told the player was transgender, and she raised the matter with the referee due to concerns about “fairness and safety”.
Twelve O Five, the group who protested outside Wembley last November, say “it’s a basic fairness and safety issue.”
It has since been reported that in February 2025, an FA appeal board found that Vaughan had received an “unfair hearing” and said it was “concerned about fundamental aspects of this case”.
After the FA announced the ban on May 1, Women’s Rights Network said: “We are pleased the FA has finally seen the light. But it shouldn’t have been such a hard fight to get here.”
The law – why now?
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Sky Sports News senior reporter Rob Dorsett explains the Football Association’s confirmation that transgender women will no longer be able to play in women’s football in England from June 1
So, after years of debate around the issue of trans inclusion in sport, why has all of this happened now?
On April 16 2025, the UK Supreme Court’s landmark judgement on how a woman should be defined in law was centred around how sex-based rights are applied through the UK-wide Equality Act from 2010 and judges were asked to rule on what the legislation means by “sex”.
The Supreme Court unanimously decided that the definition of a “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 refers to a “biological woman and biological sex”.
In the past, people had interpreted the Equality Act as considering a transgender person with a Gender Recognition Certificate as being the sex the certificate declared them to be, rather than the sex they were assigned at birth, which is the key change when it comes to the FA’s decision.
Dr Seema Patel, an associate professor of sports law at Nottingham Trent University, said she was surprised by the decision from the FA to ban transgender women from football and called it “premature”. Dr Patel makes the distinction that there is not anything in the Supreme Court’s ruling about sport specifically.
“There were references made to sport within the judgement, but only for the purpose of defining sex within the meaning of the Equality Act. So I don’t believe there was an urgency to act so soon,” she said.
Did the FA legally need to act?
Dr Patel argues no. “There was nothing in the ruling that mandated governing bodies now to make decisions on gender eligibility policies,” she points out. “The practical implications of the ruling in certain areas such as sport are being worked out at the moment.
“You could argue that it would have been more prudent to perhaps wait until we had that information.”
The FA’s email to transgender women on May 1 to let them know they could no longer play in FA-affiliated football said: “We have considered the Supreme Court’s ruling and taken legal counsel, the outcome of this for the FA means that transgender women can no longer play in the women’s game in England from June 1, 2025.”
Dr Patel, who has worked on a report with the support of FIFA which explores gender eligibility in football, said governing bodies of sport are “under extreme pressure since the ruling, to act and to do something.”
“We are all very intrigued as to what the legal advice might have been and if the legal advice was that [the FA] may be exposed to legal claims from females in sport, and if so, there should be equal amount of guidance that governing bodies might be exposed to legal plans from trans females too.”
‘Transphobia harms and affects us all’
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Football player and activist, Natalie Washington, speaks to Sky Sports on the impact of the FA’s decision on trans women in football
Questions remain about how the ban will be enforced and how difficult it will be to determine whether players are transgender.
Already, incidents in sport have highlight how gender-based suspicion is impacting children.
In March 2025, a father was banned from attending youth rugby games after he verbally abused a player he falsely believed was transgender in an U12s girls’ Surrey Cup match his daughter was playing in.
The man was given a ban of 24 weeks which was later reduced to 18.
Parker Humphreys concludes: “Transphobia harms and affects us all. A lot of the time it reinforces gender norms. If you are a girl with short hair, you might be perceived as being a different gender to the one you are, or the one you identify with, and it creates this suspicion and idea that everyone has a right to know what your ‘true’ gender is.”