The Football Association has quietly updated its transgender policy, allowing trans women to continue playing in women's football on a case-by-case basis rather than implementing an outright ban.
The amended rules, which came into force on April 1, 2025, lay out a formal process for individual trans women to be excluded from women's matches on grounds of safety or fairness.
No public announcement was made about the updated policy, which was communicated to the English game before implementation and has now been made available online.
The FA has chosen not to follow the approach taken by organisations like the Rugby Football Union, which permits only those registered female at birth to compete in women's fixtures.
The Football Association has quietly updated its transgender policy, allowing trans women to continue playing in women's football on a case-by-case basis rather than implementing an outright ban
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Instead, the football governing body has maintained its existing case-by-case assessment approach despite calls from campaigners for stricter regulations.
The amended rules state: "Where there is an issue about a player's eligibility, efforts will always be made to resolve it through dialogue between the player, the county FA and the FA."
The policy establishes a Transgender and Non-Binary Eligibility Committee to determine cases where safety or fairness concerns arise.
This committee can be involved when the FA does not approve a player's application following match observation or considers withdrawing previously granted eligibility.
Women registered to play amateur football in England must continue to reduce their testosterone levels below 5 nmol per litre for at least 12 months.
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FA chief Mark Bullingham recently confirmed there would be no major changes to their current policy on trans athletes
GETTYThe FA currently supports approximately 20 transgender women who wish to play in the grassroots game this season.
The policy aims to balance inclusion with what the FA describes as "fair and safe competition" requirements.
The updated policy has drawn criticism from campaign groups concerned about fairness in women's sport.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for Sex Matters, denounced the revised approach.
"Female footballers will feel very let down by this revised policy, which does nothing to restore fairness and safety in the women's game," she said.
McAnena criticised the testosterone threshold as insufficient.
"By merely requiring male players to prove once a year that they have lowered their testosterone to a level that is still far above normal female levels, it's unscientific, already out of date and not compliant with the Sports Councils' guidance," she stated.
She also questioned the FA's communication strategy regarding the policy change.
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"No wonder the FA published this without announcing it," McAnena added.
The policy update follows years of review by the football governing body.
The update came into force a month after Mark Bullingham, the FA's chief executive, confirmed there would be no major changes to its previous policy.
"If you look at the Equality Act and we've had legal opinion on it we feel that our policy's broadly in the right place," Bullingham said at the time.
The FA have been criticised for their failure to ban transgender athletes
PA"We do continue to look at areas which we might refine and that's where we are. We feel like we're broadly in the right place at the moment. And we've had that policy checked by Kings Counsel."
An FA spokesperson defended the approach, stating: "We have had a transgender inclusion policy in place since 2015 to help us support the small number of transgender women who would like to play in the grass-roots game."
The spokesperson added this would be permitted "providing it can be done without sacrificing fair and safe competition, and if they have met certain required criteria."
The FA maintains that while certain aspects have been updated, the principles underpinning their policy remain unchanged.
