Presidents: Paula Sedgley and Michele Lund

Gloucester County Girls Football League

Presidents: Paula Sedgley and Michele Lund

Chairman: Jason Keates

Vice-Chairman: Guy Stirling-Lee

Secretary: Laurence Ashby

12 October 2015

Dear Chris,

As you are already aware Gloucester County Girls Football League has, for the first time in their 15 year history, been approached by teams to register male players within the league. This was first raised out our AGM in May 2015 by Welland Juniors FC as part of their application to join the league. After lengthy discussions at the AGM it was decided that the issue would need further investigation by the league committee and to delay the decision on accepting Welland Juniors FC into the league.

Advice was sought from Gloucestershire FA and Central FA and the league’s attention was drawn to the Standard Code of Rules 1 (C) Inclusivity and Non-discrimination. As a result of this member clubs were advised about the league responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010 and advised to take that into consideration when voting on Welland Junior FC application to join the league. As a result clubs voted in favour by 7 in favour, 3 against and 3 abstentions.

Throughout the summer concerns were continued to be raised by clubs about the acceptance of male players into a girl’s football league. However during the player registrations before the commencement of the season clubs registered 6 male players across 4 clubs at U12, U14 and U16 level.

After the first 2 rounds of football the league received communication from two clubs, Ross Juniors FC and Forest of Dean Ladies FC that they wish to withdraw from the league as a result of having played against male players and the female players not being comfortable to continue to play in a mixed league. Other clubs have now stated that they will not play against teams that are fielding male players and will forfeit those matches.

The teams that have registered male players have stated that they have done so in order that they can field a full team to fulfil their fixtures as they had not got enough female players to field a team each week.

The GCGFL was formed to promote girls football as prior to this the only option available to girls was to play in competitions within a mixed team. The situation has now come to the point where the league have to now look out how it is going to manage male players registering to play in the league competition. The league is not happy to see teams withdraw from the league or forfeit matches due to male players; this is totally against the league vision statement.

As a short term measure the GCGFL have looked to introduce the following control measures:

• All clubs will be notified of which teams have registered a male player at their age group.
• Teams will be informed that male players should only be used in order to be able to complete a match where the minimum numbers of players cannot be met with female players. The minimum number of players is listed in the handbook. What this means is that male players should generally not be playing if there are female players available to play.
• Teams need to agree, prior to the match day, the format in which the match will be played. This will give a team that has girls who are apprehensive about playing male players to agree a format that will mean the number of male players they face is reduced or eliminated completely.
• There will bea maximum of 2 male players registered in a squad.
• Teams wishing to register male players will be offered the opportunity to join or signposted to a mixed sex league locally.

These proposals are outside of the published rules of the league competition for season 2015/16 and therefore are unenforceable. They are to be seen as guidance in order to address the concerns of players and clubs whilst a longer term solution can be found. As a result of this guidance Forest of Dean Ladies FC have now stated their intention to remain in the league.

Looking toward a long term solution the league has been seeking legal advice around their status and obligations under the Equality Act 2010.

The GCGFL see their status under the Act as an ‘association’. There are defined rules for membership and new members are voted into the league by a majority of existing members. The term ‘Members’ should be read as ‘clubs’. To also be an ‘association’ under the Act there needs to be more than 25 members. Players associated with those clubs and registered with the league will fall under the term member and therefore with over 520 female players registered the league complies with this.

As an association the league have to comply with the Equality Act 2010. Under the Act an association may, if it chooses to, restrict membership to people who share a protected characteristic. One of the protected characteristics is sex (gender). An example in theguidance for the Act is a women-only club could, if it chose, refuse to accept members of the opposite sex. So could a men-only club.

The Equality Act 2010 allows for special rules for sport. It states that sports clubs which are associations in equality law can organise separate sporting activities for men and women if they choose to where:

• Physical strength, stamina, or physique are major factors in determining success or failure, and
• One sex is generally at a disadvantage in comparison with the other.

The Equality Act 2010 also allows for positive action. It is possible for an association to target people with a particular protected characteristic through positive action if it can show that they have a different need or a track record of disadvantaged or low participation in its activities.

On the FA website, Rachel Pavlou, the FA Women’s and girls National Development Manager has stated:

“The most important thing is to give girlswho want to play football the choice. I’d say to all of your clubs and leagues out there that we are always looking for more clubs and leagues to set up girls-only opportunities within their structures. We’d always love to see more of our brilliant clubs out there take on the girls’ game. We know that they are doing some fantastic work but it’s not all been done. We’ll need their continued support to help us develop the female game.”

To help achieve this aim, the FA has this week increased the age limit for mixed football to under-18s, to allow more girls the opportunity to play and more choice over who they play for.

“The important message to get across about mixed football is that we’re not raising the age group to make girls play with boys. We’re doing it to give girls the choice to play with boys if they want to. We’ve been doing research and risk assessments to give girls the choice, but our number one priority is to see the girls’ game flourish.”

This clearly is confused messages from the FA as we have been previously informed we could not exclude male players from the GCGFL as the FA promote mixed leagues.

It is a very well known fact that there are significantly less female players playing football than males. From talking to players across the clubs it is clear that many of the girls play in a girl’s league as they do not want to play against boys. It has also been demonstrated that when clubs do face male players they are more likely to not play the match and in cases withdraw from the league completely. This not acceptable to the GCGFL.

Therefore on behalf of the Gloucester County Girls Football League I am applying to the FA for special permission to alter our league rules in order to clarify the position of the league as a girl’s only league under the Equality Act 2010. I therefore propose an additional section within our league rules:-

1. (C) (v) As allowed by the Equality Act 2010 the Gloucester County Girls Football League will only allow the registration of female players. This is to promote female participation in football and allowing female players the choice to play in a female only league or a mixed league.

In order to support those clubs that have registered male players I have met with Alexis and there will be some planned targeted support to those teams to increase player recruitment. In the interim the league will support those teams that have registered male players for them to continue playing until the team has sufficient players to complete their matches.

As you will appreciate this issue has been a significant one for the GCGFL and at present is a huge distraction and interfering with other planned league development work. We are very proud to be the holders of the GFA and regional Charter Standard league of the year 2015 and are very keen to continue our work in the promotion of girl’s football.

I am happy to meet to discuss this matter with any decision makers if required.

I look forward to receiving a response from the Gloucestershire FA.

Yours sincerely,

Jason Keates

Chairman

2 Folland Avenue, Hucclecote, Gloucester, GL3 3TA

Email :

Website: gcgfl.org.uk

Twitter: glos_girl_footy