Bizarre policy from the Football Association accepting women into men's football

[MyAmpleSheep]

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cvg89449lv7o

Trans-identifying women can play in men's matches and leagues if they sign a document acknowleding they're actually women and not men.

According to the report:
It also requires testosterone levels to be "in the normal adult male range" of 7.7 to 29.4 nanomoles per litre of blood.
So if you are a trans man who isn't on cross sex hormones you can't play?

That's like compulsory doping. The opposite to usual, for sport.

I guess it's an "at your own risk" thing - they know the women are at a physical disadvantage and want to make sure they know/accept it too.

It's still unfair on the men playing though - will they feel they can't play/tackle as hard if they're playing against a woman? What if they inadvertently injure her because they thought she was a male? Surely it's far easier just to say that everyone plays in the category matching their biological sex.

Men have a big advantage so would be interested to see if any sign up. Probably none as never hear about that side. Now if men can play in women’s it would be a different story.

They don't want to be sued by any female players who get injured by men. This is an arse covering exercise so they can say the women knew they were at risk.

With a bit of thought - I suspect this policy wouldn't stand up to a legal challenge on the same grounds that any other trans-inclusive single-gender service is unlawful.

There are exemptions in the EA2010 for single-sex sport, but by admitting women into a men's sport, it's not single sex any more. That means that women not identifying as trans are being discriminated against.

It should be either men-only, or open category.

Practically speaking, how many men's teams are going to want a female player, even one who's doping? She'd have to be exceptionally good or I bet the male players would feel their team was under a disadvantage - and probably start drifting off to join other sides.

Apart from the ones trying for virtue points rather than wins, of course, but how many of those are there going to be?

So then it'll be transwomen can play in women's teams as long as the team have all been coerced into signed to agree that the person is a man.

Are you honestly suggesting that women's teams who fielded trans-identifying men in the past were doing it for the competitive advantage of having a male player, and not just to #bekind?

I'm shocked and appalled you could think such a thing.

what about biological females who have transitioned medically? it would no longer be fare for them to play in womens teams

If by "have transitioned medically" you mean they are taking exogenous testosterone and their T levels are above the normal female range, indeed it would not be fair for them to play in women:s teams.

Any more than it would be fair for a woman doping with testosterone for physical advantage to play in those teams.

I'd imagine it's an arse covering exercise. They're effectively positioning the men's game as the "open" game, and the women's as female only.

That way when transwomen say "You're discriminating against us, we can't play", they can point them towards the "open" category and say "Here you go, women are allowed to play against men, we're still affirming you as women", while also covering their arses legally in the event a real woman tries to play in the mens game and gets injured.

It would be slightly shit for the men if they had to hold back on tackling etc for fear of hurting a woman, but that's not going to happen, because no actual woman is daft enough to want to play against men.

It seems the FA hopes to have mixed gender football available from the 2026-27 season.

Quite possibly because its officials know full well that, in general, men's teams won't want to play in "open" leagues, and male players won't want to play in "open" teams.

Can trans identifying females take sufficient doses of testosterone to be in “usual male levels” and be healthy enough to play at that level?

Very thorough article with none of the rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth that we have come to expect from the BBC when it covers "trans issues" and the Supreme Court judgement. Possibly because it is about boring biological females and/or "trans inclusion"?

Looks like the policy might also have the added benefit of deterring females who have completely lost their grip on reality. This bunny isn't happy:

One transgender footballer, who has played men's football at amateur level, condemned the language used by the FA in the new guidance.
"I am not a biological female, I am a man," the player, who asked not be named, told BBC Sport.

"I highly doubt many trans men would agree to sign a document with that language in it, so it feels like a ban on the sly."

The effect of the policy is odd though. The article refers to "male sport" and "men's football" but women are included if doping on T takes them up into the normal adult male range.

Presumably there is no minimum level for a man's T, so it is not an Open Category with a "Minimum T-Level" entry criterion.

It is basically an invitation to women to dope on T in order to compete against men.

It sounds rather like what Ellis Cashmore has been arguing for years.

Opinion: It’s time to allow doping in sport
October 24, 2012 - Ellis Cashmore
https://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/23/opinion/cashmore-time-to-allow-doping-in-sport/index.html

This Ellis Cashmore, talking in 2019 to Jeremy Vine and Sharron Davies (who he was extremely rude to and kept calling "Karen"!) about Caster Semenya:

"The point about this is, Jeremy, that in all aspects of society, we are moving towards gender fluidity and that means that people can say, '"I am a man or I am a woman", and that is what they call Self Identification.

Sometimes they need corroborating evidence that is proof that they are transitioning, having gender reassignment through surgical means or maybe through hormonal means.

But largely society takes them at their word, but sport apparently doesn't!

It doesn't matter what psychologically you think about yourself, whether you identify as a woman, whether you dress like a woman, hang about with other women, It doesn't matter how you think about yourselves, how you identify, you still gotta compete against men.

How ridiculous is that?"

🤡

I cannot find that episode on BBC Sounds now to link to it so let's see if this works . . . relevant clips - he is a VERY annoying man, mind!
https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-eka89-18fe847

or on YouTube if preferred (showing off because I have just worked out how to do a podcast and then syndicate it to YouTube!)

🥳

Agree that it’s positioning the men’s game as “open” and an arse-covering exercise in case of injury. Also agree that men won’t want doped-up females in their game, why would they disadvantage themselves like that?

Fifa needs to resolve the issue of male players with DSDs playing in women’s leagues around the world and in major competitions like AFCON.
Looking at you in particular Zambia.

Nice to see the FA acknowledging that
'adult biological females have a greater risk of injury when playing against adult biological males '.
Useful!

I don't think there should be any restriction, especially given the possible, even likely, health implications of women using synthetic means to get their testosterone levels up to these "usual male levels".

Just as you get the odd 15 year old boy who's good and brave enough playing in men's football (there's even been a couple in the full-on premier league) if a few women are brave and probably foolish to take a chance in the men's category they should be allowed to do it, subject to all the insurance etc risk being on them.

This is the massive irony isn’t it?! They held out on this idea for years, then all of a sudden they’re worried about getting sued by females of the trans kind, while they ignored the safety concerns of females of the non-trans kind for years. They’re probably too stupid to even see it.