Female soccer players in Sydney have been banned from forfeiting matches against a women’s team featuring transgender players, it has been reported.
The Flying Bats team featured five trans players when they went undefeated in 2024 and won their grand final.
There was an outcry after they scored 65 goals and conceded just four during that campaign.
2GB’s Ben Fordham revealed that six of the team’s victories came as a result of the opposition team forfeiting, including the two semi-final fixtures that led to their progress to the final.
It was also reported that governing bodies had told clubs they would be punished if they forfeited their games against the Bats.
Harry Potter author and vocal critic of the transgender movement JK Rowling even weighed in on the situation.
Pictured: Flying Bats players in a team photo taken in 2024, when the side’s incredible unbeaten run in their Sydney competition first made headlines
Pictured: Flying Bats players (in red and black) playing in their grand final in August 2024, which they won after winning all 16 of their regular-season matches while scoring 65 goals and only conceding four
This season the Flying Bats are playing in the newly launched Northern Suburbs Football Association Super League, and Fordham has reported that opposition teams have been told to sign an agreement stating they will not forfeit matches against the side.
‘The association has made all players sign an agreement,’ Fordham said, quoting a whistleblower who asked to remain anonymous.
‘Anyone who wants to play in the Super League, which is the top division, have individually signed agreements … that state the teams will not forfeit playing the Flying Bats, who have the male-born players.’
The whistleblower also claimed a club could have pulled out of the Super League in protest at the move.
‘Hornsby Heights were in the top women’s division last year but not this year. That may or may not have something to do with the prerequisite of signing the no-forfeit agreement,’ the whistleblower said.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Flying Bats, Northern Suburbs Football Association and the Hornsby Heights Football Club for comment.
Life in the Super League hasn’t been easy for the Flying Bats.
The first round this year saw them score a 1-1 draw with North Sydney United, followed by an 8-1 loss to Lindfield, then a 3-1 defeat to North Sydney United.
One of the Flying Bats players received a yellow card in their tense grand final win over West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Football Club in 2024
Harry Potter author JK Rowling (pictured) took up the case against the Flying Bats in 2024
On the Flying Bats’ official website, they state they are ‘the biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world’.
Club president Jennifer Peden told Daily Mail Australia: ‘As a club, the Flying Bats FC stand strongly for inclusion, and pride ourselves on safe, respectful and fair play, the promotion of a supportive community for LGBTQIA+ players, officials and supporters, and the significant physical, social and mental health benefits that participation in sport brings, especially to marginalised members of the LGBTQIA+ community. We are a club that values our cisgender and transgender players equally.
‘We strongly support the Australian Human Rights Commission’s guidelines for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse people in sport.’
The guidelines state that under the federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984, sporting organisations cannot discriminate against transgender players either directly, or indirectly.
Football NSW has developed a Gender Diversity Policy that states, ‘Community (grassroots) players are permitted to participate in Football on the basis of the gender with which they identify.’
‘These guidelines, along with the Sex Discrimination Act, inform the gender inclusion policies of Football Australia, Football NSW, and the North West Sydney Football Association at the community, grassroots level at which we play,’ Peden said.
‘Trans women belong in the women’s competition because that is the gender with which they identify. Trans women have played with the club for at least 20 years, at levels ranging from beginner to skilled, just like our cis women players.
‘Our players are graded on ability, and placed in the team that is most appropriate for their skill and experience level.’
