Transgender players can choose men's or women's team - German FA
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 [June 23, 2022] BERLIN
(Reuters) - Transgender and non-binary footballers can now decide
themselves whether to play for a men's or women's team instead of
being bound by personal identification data, the German Football
Association (DFB) said on Thursday.
It said the ruling was included in the DFB match regulation for
amateurs, the junior regulation and the futsal rulebook.
"At its core this ruling says that players with a personal (gender)
status that is 'diverse' or 'no reference' and players who change
their gender can take their own decision whether the will be issued
an eligibility to play for a men's or women's team," the DFB said.
"This is also the case for transgender footballers who can now
change (teams) at a moment they decide or can stay on at the team
they have been playing for."
Until now it was the gender named in the personal identification
documents that determined the eligibility of footballers from junior
level upwards and whether they would play for a men's or a women's
team, according to the DFB.
Since 2018, however, apart from 'female' and 'male', there is also
the option of ticking the box for 'diverse' and 'no reference' in
the gender section of personal identification documents in Germany.
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"As it is possible since 2018 for people to
register in the civil registry as 'diverse', there has been a rise
in the number of people with that status," the DFB said.
"This also affects people who play football which made the need for
clear rules more important."
Until now there had been no specific ruling in Germany for
footballers who identified as diverse or no reference.
The DFB has more than seven million registered members and more than
24,000 football clubs.
There is no universal rule in sports for the participation of
transgender or non-binary athletes -- even at elite level -- with
the International Olympic Committee having left it up to each sports
federation to decide on their rules.
Last week swimming's world governing body FINA voted to restrict the
participation of transgender competitors in women's competition and
establish an "open" category, a move widely opposed by LGBT rights
advocates.
FINA's decision, the strictest by any Olympic sports body, states
that male-to-female transgender athletes are eligible to compete in
women's competitions only if they have not experienced any part of
male puberty.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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