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Mark Bullingham, the chief executive of the Football Association, has written to London grassroots football club Goal Diggers FC explaining the governing body’s decision to ban transgender women from women’s football “was not an ideological judgment, but a difficult decision” based on legal advice that a “change in policy was necessary” following the supreme court ruling which said the term “woman” in the Equality Act refers only to a biological woman.
Representatives of Goal Diggers undertook a 12-mile walk from their training pitches in Haggerston Park to Wembley Stadium to deliver their open letter to the FA. In it they demanded a reversal of the ban on transgender women from women’s football and described the FA’s decision as a “pitiful and weak response” to the supreme court’s ruling. Bullingham said the FA understands “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”, added it “also understands that it will have repercussions for Goal Diggers FC – your players, coaches, volunteers and fans – who all play an important role in championing diversity in football.”
Bullingham said that the FA would “like to reassure you that we are committed to working with every registered transgender player in our network to support them in staying involved in football and we will continue to have those conversations”. However, Goal Diggers player Becky Taylor-Gill said the FA needs to stand more firmly with transgender women. “Their motto is football for all. Put your money where your mouth is,” said Taylor-Gill. “Put your lawyers in the situation where they can fight for football to be for all.
“We’ve created a safe space for trans women in our women’s team that we really cherish and they should feel welcomed. This decision will just push more trans women out of football at a time when that’s what they really need.”
Outside the Haggerston Park football pitches where Goal Diggers train, members of the not-for-profit club, which was founded to make football more available and accessible to all women and non-binary people, signed flags and set off flares alongside supporters before setting off on their walk. It had initially been set up as a sponsored walk by Goal Diggers members to fundraise for the club and was to conclude with a letter opposing the FA’s existing grassroots transgender women’s policy, which will be overtaken by the ban when it comes into effect on 1 June.
However, after the supreme court ruling and subsequent FA ban, the club decided to open the walk up to others, with members of other clubs and supporters of the campaign joining the walk to endorse the message in the letter that: “Our governing body should not be adding more barriers to transgender people to be welcomed into the beautiful game.”
Taylor-Gill said the decision of the FA “goes completely against what Goal Diggers stand for and what the grassroots women’s football community stands for” adding: “We’ve had to fight so much just to be able to play. We, as a club, took us years to find a regular space for us to play football. We were playing football on sandy astro and in kids playgrounds at schools because men’s teams had block bookings for all of the pitches.
“The FA have a history of banning women from football. In 1921 they banned women from playing on FA-affiliated pitches and they’re doing the same now, but they’re just taking aim at our transgender teammates who are already an incredibly vulnerable part of society as things stand in the UK. All they want to do is play football and at a time when it’s really important that they have that community because of wider transphobia in society, it’s being taken away from them. That’s really, really sad.”
Sammy Rees, a trans women player for Goal Diggers, described feeling “hurt, annoyed and scared” following the ban. “A lot of things that I never worried about in the past are now at the forefront of my mind,” she said. “I’m stressed, not just about the FA decision but the whole supreme court ruling has changed how I view my life. It’s changed how I interact with people, it’s made me more conscious of how I present to other people and how people view me, which is something I never really struggled with before.”
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Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for Sex Matters, which describes itself as an organisation that campaigns for clarity about biological sex in law and life, said of the FA decision: “The FA has not banned anyone from football. It has restated what it always knew: that women need their own teams and leagues. Playing mixed-sex football should be a choice, not something forced on women and girls because trans-identifying male players want to join women’s teams.”
“As a trans woman that’s played men’s football, as much as the people that I played with were lovely and were accepting, I was incredibly uncomfortable and I know other trans people who have felt similarly,” said Rees, who has played football for more than 20 years. “It’s a completely different environment. When I come into women’s football I’m met with nothing but love, guidance, acceptance and most importantly, respect.”
