Transgender women soccer players to be banned from English women’s teams

LONDON — Transgender women will be banned from playing on women’s soccer teams in England following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling last month, the sport’s governing body said Thursday.

The Football Association said it had decided to change its rules that had allowed transgender athletes to play on women’s soccer if they had reduced testosterone levels. The Scottish Football Association made a similar decision last week.

The U.K’s highest court issued a ruling two weeks ago that defined a woman for anti-discrimination purposes as someone born biologically female. The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said after the ruling that transgender women would be excluded from women’s toilets, hospital wards and sports teams.

While the ruling was cheered by some feminist groups, it has been condemned by trans-rights groups who said it would have a broad and detrimental impact on daily life.

The FA said its policy had been to make the sport accessible to as many people as possible but that it would make alterations if there were changes in law, science or the operations of “grassroots football.”

“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 FA said in a statement.

It was not clear how many players would be affected by the policy that would take effect June 1.