Boys being pushed into girls’ football league

[PriOn1]

I found this article on Twitter and find it rather odd. It’s about a boy who wants to play in a girls’ football league. It doesn’t say that the boy “identifies as a girl” or anything similar. From the way it reads, he’s a boy who wants to play in the girls’ league because it’s easier.

What I don’t understand is the reaction of the Football Association, who seem to be insisting he must be allowed to play.

So I found myself wondering whether they missed out the fact that he claims to be a girl, or whether it might be more nuanced. For example, if there are already boys in the girl’s league who do claim to be female, does it then become discriminatory to exclude other boys?

Any thoughts or enlightenment? I shall now go off to search for other sources of information…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13149771/west-riding-girls-football-league-boy-footbal-association.html#comments

As far as I can see, the FA's official position is that all under-16 competitions are mixed.

At U17 and U18, I think you can have female-only and mixed competitions. And then no mixed above that.

I spent a while digging through the FA site, and information about girls' football is basically missing in action, because there is no specific provision. Where it is present, it seems to be presented as a sort of vague generic "diversity and inclusion" measure, rather than recognising any fundamental differences.

One example of that:

https://www.thefabrochure.com/developing-female-football/

A kind of conflicted document - wanting female "inclusion", but it having to be mixed-sex. But you can have female-only events "for fun".

I’ve found one more article here, but it doesn’t clear up what’s going on here.

It does seem to me though, that all the current controversy is encouraging difficult parents to push for things they wouldn’t have asked for before, or who would have been immediately shut down if they did.

And of course, it’s girls who are potentially losing out, yet again.

https://bnnbreaking.com/sports/fa-threatens-sanctions-on-west-riding-girls-football-league-for-excluding-boy-player

At the end of October last year the boy's parents asked the West Riding Girls League if their son could join due to him not wanting to play with other boys, and also because of his ability level.

How about those parents actually do their job and tell their little darling just because he wants something doesnt mean he bloody gets it.

Thanks @NecessaryScene

So basically, someone saw a need and set up a girls’ league, but it was never officially ratified. And now some selfish boy’s parents are fucking it up.

It's incredible but probably shouldn't be, given the long misogynistic history of football.

The DM article says nothing about the boy pretending to be a girl, he just seems to be bad at football and knows it'll be easier if he plays with and against girls. It'll make him look better, of course it will.

His parents requested that he join the girls. That's two adults plus a child and the existing arrangement will be turned upside down to accommodate them and to the great disadvantage of girls.

But who cares about girls? They're only there to flatter male egos

It does seem to me though, that all the current controversy is encouraging difficult parents to push for things they wouldn’t have asked for before, or who would have been immediately shut down if they did.

Well, quite. If some boys and men can get into women's spaces, there's no reason all shouldn't be able to. It would be unfair to treat some males as "special".

Ignoring the rules of it having to be mixed sex for a minute I can't get over 6000 girls potentially getting fucked over to keep one single solitary boy and his parents happy.

But no doubt there will be someone along shortly to tell me that it's perfectly OK as the rules say blah blah blah and why can't the girls just be kind and let the boy play.

I thought the same thing

they are openly admitting it’s because the kid isn’t good enough. So why not search for a mixed sex team?

there’s of course a wider issue that competitive sport does mean that if your not hugely talented you get dropped - there should almost be two leagues, a competitive league and a social/fitness league. But when it’s all run by volunteers that’s impossible to manage.

The boys' league needs taking to account for lack of inclusion for different abilities. If you pay subs, you play equally. IME too many coaches think if they 'win' they are going to be appointed to professional clubs so don't want 'weaker' players who actually need coaching.
But yes agree, as a girl who wasn't allowed to play in the boys' team in the 70s when there were no local girls teams now the ball is literally on the other foot, suck it up buttercup, and campaign for better inclusion within your own sex.

The boys' league needs taking to account for lack of inclusion for different abilities. If you pay subs, you play equally. IME too many coaches think if they 'win' they are going to be appointed to professional clubs so don't want 'weaker' players who actually need coaching.

of course there is a glaring solution to this problem. The boys parents could actually step up as volunteers, complete the FA safeguarding course and create their own team.….

The FA brochure above goes on about females in football and then bangs on about 'all genders'. I don't know what that means.

The coaches say in the article that a lot of the girls has played in mixed leagues but weren't getting a chance because the boys got priority.

This makes me so angry that a mediocre boy will take the place of a much more talented girl. Not to mention opening the flood gates to many other boys and destroying the whole reason it was set up in The first place.

Exactly, they want the girls' teams to do it for them, though.

So let me get this right, the FA only let women play football during WWI because there were no men available.

Once the first world war ended they then banned women playing football in the FA until nearly three quarters of the way through the 20th century.

And now here we are 50ish years later and we've gone from finally being allowed to play again to can you let the boy who thinks he's a girl join your team to this boy isn't good enough to play with the boys as he's a mediocre football player so move over and let him play with you lesser girls.

50 years, that's all we got, 50 years until they found a way to fuck women over all over again.

Well done, that sums it up nicely!

Rainbowshit · Today 10:20

This makes me so angry that a mediocre boy will take the place of a much more talented girl. Not to mention opening the flood gates to many other boys and destroying the whole reason it was set up in The first place.

As the Americans say, it's a no brainer. There's at least one 15 year old boy playing Premier League football and several 16 & 17 year olds, but the FA can't connect the bloody dots. This isn't even a case of him saying he's a girl, just that he's rubbish and doesn't like the other boys, so he should play on a girl's team.

At my daughter's school, they stop the mixed play in Year 7 - when they're 11 years old.

Yep. We have been discussing it here too

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5019946-to-think-this-is-a-clear-bit-of-film-that-all-mps-should-watch-demonstrating-why-men-in-womens-sport-is-ludicrous

Someone should ask the FA where the future Red Roses will come from if girls get pissed off and give up football altogether.

Talent pipeline, people.

And yes, under 16s do matter. Boys get picked for football academies from the agd of 9.

This was always the way it was going to go. If Boris who is now Doris and does nothing more than wear a skirt is allowed to play then there is no reason to stop Morris playing too.

Thanks. I hadn’t seen that. I’ll have a look now.

The west riding football comes in on page 4. Only saw it on the news early this morning.
But all the same principle, same issues.

So the assumption is that the girls will be kind and gentle and not very good and will play nicely with him because just less good at football than boys so he'll feel at home? Poor little flower.

Ffs, how does this jive with the whole idea of 'there's no difference between male and female bodies/sport potential'?

The girls probably have a bit more ambition and aspiration than that, and don't exist to be the dolly and doily league for boys who don't like the nasty, rough types. Nor should they be required to view themselves in that way. This is parents pushing this sexist and entitled narrative on kids.

I think it's logical that if some boys are allowed in girls schools, girls teams, girl guides, then there is no justifiable reason to exclude any boy.

Why can he not choose a mixed sex team then? Or why can his parents not step up and volunteer to be a coach of a new team where they could be in charge of who plays?

That boy is going to, thanks to his parents, grow up with a sense of entitlement to enter women's private spaces. His parents are basically raising another nasty little misogynist and actively encouraging him to disrespect and disregard women's rights to privacy and safety. How lovely of them, they must feel so proud of themselves.