Four weeks unbeaten. That was how the Beryl Ackroyd Cup ended for Flying Bats FC, the Sydney club that won the final 4-0 with five transgender players in its squad.
President Jen Peden defended the team’s participation under the guidelines of the Australian Human Rights Commission, which allow people to compete according to the gender with which they identify.
But on the other side of the pitch, the story is told differently: parents who withdrew their daughters out of fear, a rival club that accused a player of breaking a rival’s leg in a previous match, and as many as 24 women who decided to leave the competition so they would not have to face that team.
Football NSW backed inclusion, citing the current regulations. Clubs such as Frank Parisi’s met on March 17 in Sydney to discuss what to do. While the institutions keep repeating that the rules are on the right side, it is the players who feel that the pitch is no longer level for everyone.