In a significant policy shift, the Football Association (FA) has announced that transgender women will no longer be permitted to play in women’s football across England. The decision comes following a recent UK Supreme Court ruling that legally defined women based on biological sex.
The FA stated that the new policy will take effect from June 1, 2025, marking a complete reversal from previous regulations that allowed transgender women to participate in women’s matches provided they reduced their testosterone levels.
“This is a complex subject, and 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 FA explained in their announcement.
The governing body acknowledged the impact this decision will have on affected players: “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 policy change was prompted by last month’s unanimous Supreme Court ruling in a case between the Scottish government and the For Women Scotland (FWS) group. The court determined that terms like “woman” and “sex” in the UK’s 2010 Equality Act specifically refer to biological women and biological sex.
In their 88-page decision, justices Lord Hodge, Lady Rose, and Lady Simler stated: “The definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010 makes clear that the concept of sex is binary, a person is either a woman or a man. Persons who share that protected characteristic for the purposes of the group-based rights and protections are persons of the same sex and provisions that refer to protection for women necessarily exclude men.”
The FA emphasized its commitment to making football “accessible to as many people as possible” while simultaneously “operating within the law and international football policy defined by UEFA and FIFA.”
This development represents one of the most significant changes to women’s football eligibility rules in recent years and continues an ongoing international conversation about transgender participation in women’s sports at all levels.
