Former referee Janie Frampton has praised the Football Association's decision to ban transgender players from women's football, calling it "absolutely the right decision"Her comments come after the news broke that transgender women will be barred from playing in women's football in England starting June 1, 2025.READ THE FULL STORY HERE
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00:00Janie, welcome to the show. Delight to have your company. Janie, you've been outspoken
00:04so many times on this channel and elsewhere. Primary to you is women's safety. I'm assuming
00:11today is a huge victory in your mind. Absolutely, Martin. Good afternoon and welcome back.
00:19Yes, absolutely. The safety is not just about the biology here and whether we are making sure that
00:26everybody gets their rights. It is about safety first and foremost. We always believe, rightfully
00:32so, that we have to protect the integrity of sport and the integrity is about fairness.
00:37This is absolutely the right decision because I hear so many times from women playing against
00:43trans women that the tackles are harder, the strength and stamina of trans women is much higher
00:49than women in general. This had to be the right decision. The only thing I'm surprised at, Martin,
00:56is why the FA made their ruling early April when they knew that the court ruling was coming within
01:03a few weeks because now they've had to do a U-turn. They have set standards so high in the past,
01:10which is why they did lots of research around the gender of children and young people playing football
01:17and they ruled that above under 13, you couldn't have mixed genders for that very reason. All the
01:24time trans women are not biological women, it cannot be a fair playing field.
01:30And Janie, talk our viewers and listeners through, if you can, some of the obvious physical advantages
01:37that trans women have and also the types of injuries that we've seen sustained in sport since trans
01:45women started to play. We've seen a huge increase, have we not, in impact injuries on biological women?
01:51Sure. So if you look at the strength and stamina of a biological man and you compare it to that of a
01:59biological woman, there is a huge difference, which is why women's football and men's football are
02:04completely different games. One is the strength, the long ball. One is the more technical play to feet
02:10because the women are just not as strong as men. So when you start to have a trans woman playing in
02:17a woman's team, that is a massive advantage for the team and a disadvantage for the other team.
02:23The tackles. My goodness, I refereed men's professional football, Martin, and the tackles were hard.
02:30That's not what women should be facing. And you are right. The injuries that women are sustaining,
02:35and I'm not saying from trans women tackles, but what they are actually sustaining now is more and
02:41more ACLs, for example, that we're experiencing. And explain to us what that means. What's an ACL?
02:48Yeah, it's the arterial cruciate ligament. So we, men in football get them, of course,
02:54but they're now realising that the way the woman's biology is and their physiology,
03:00women are getting more and more ACL injuries. And that can finish a woman's career, you know,
03:06and it's a really, really big operation and quite dangerous for them. So we've got to be really
03:12mindful. You know what? We are different. Our physiology is different. That's what makes us
03:17different, Martin. I'm sure you've noticed. Well, I try not to misgender anybody on this show.
03:23You know that, Janie, but on a serious point, netball, England netball, a swiftly followed suit,
03:29cricket expected to follow. Do you think that that Supreme Court ruling, and of course,
03:34Donald Trump in America, we heard a short while ago, a press conference from Washington,
03:38they are absolutely adamant that this era, this period of biological men being able to
03:44participate in women's sport is over, finished, showing the red card. Do you think today makes
03:49a significant moment in sport where this might signify a sea change? Or do you think actually
03:55there'll be resistance? We've seen resistance in women only swimming groups, even the NHS,
04:0028 boroughs in London refusing to comply with the Supreme Court law. Are you glass half full about it,
04:06Janie? I'm absolutely glass half full because I tell you now, this is not going to stop. You are
04:12going to get protests. Of course you are. But as a woman, I am proud to have been born a woman. I'm
04:18proud to continue being a woman. But I want to go into women safe spaces. I don't want to change in a
04:24communal changing room, in a department store, and change with somebody who's got a beard. I don't
04:30want to. And if that's wrong, then so be it. I'm wrong. I don't want to go into gender neutral
04:37toilets where, excuse it, but men often miss the seat. You know, so that's not what I want.
04:43You know, and most women are of the same mind. Everybody should have their own space. Trans
04:49women deserve their own space. But please don't erode my rights, you know, just so that we can give
04:56rights to another minority group.