The Football Association is considering the closure of one of the nation’s largest girls’ football leagues because it refuses to let a boy participate in its matches. The Mail on Sunday has the story.
A row has broken out between the FA and officials running a female league in Yorkshire after parents complained their son had not been allowed to join.
It is understood the FA has threatened the West Riding Girls Football League with sanctions and a possible suspension if it does not agree to let boys on the pitch, a scenario officials have branded “a massive threat to the girls’ game”.
Last week an emergency meeting was held by organisers of the league – which has at least 6,000 under-18 girls playing across more than 300 teams – where managers voiced their concerns that allowing boys to play would “open the floodgates”.
The FA’s gender policy states that any under-16 teams must allow both boys and girls to play, despite admitting that “physical strength, stamina or physique” can put one sex at the disadvantage of the other.
At the end of October last year the boy’s parents asked the West Riding Girls League if their son could join due to him not wanting to play with other boys, and also because of his ability level.
But after the league declined their request, the parents launched an appeal with the West Riding County Football Association – overseen by the national FA – which allegedly told the organisers they were “in no position to refuse the application” and would face sanctions for doing so.
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