SFA chief Ian Maxwell: It feels like there are winners and losers amid trans ban and it's 'horrible'

Ian Maxwell says it is “horrible” that it feels like there are “winners and losers” following the Scottish Football Association’s decision to ban trans women from competitive women’s football.

The new policy will mean that only those born biologically female will be permitted to play in any game under the governing body’s rules, which run from the grassroots at under-13 level to the top of the professional league and the national team.

Hampden bosses had been discussing updating their gender policy for some time but the new approach was approved at a board meeting in April.

In an interview with STV Sport, Maxwell spoke of how “difficult” the decision was to make in what he describes as a “really emotive and divisive area”.

The SFA chief revealed that a new participation policy will have fairness, inclusion, and safety as its cornerstone.

He said: “Our participation policy has been under review for a considerable period of time.

“It’s a really difficult decision, it’s a really difficult area, it’s a really emotive area and a really divisive area, which is disappointing.

“Sport and governing bodies, and not just football, were looking for some sort of clarity on how best to devise the next stage of their policy.

“The Supreme Court judgement gave us that clarity, we then issued the statement that we did and we’re working on the participation policy.

“We have a football for all strategy, and there has to be appropriate opportunities for anyone who wants to play football, to be able to do so.

“When you think of safety, fairness and inclusion, those things will have to be at the cornerstone of that.

“We are engaging with other national associations, we’re engaged with our equality, diversity and inclusion advisory board, and we will hopefully publish a new policy in the very near future, but it is a work in progress at the moment.

“I understand the frustrations, it’s a really emotive subject and really divisive. It feels like there have been winners and losers in this, which is a horrible place to be.

“We need to devise a policy, which looks at safety, looks at fairness, looks at inclusion. We will not get all those things right, there will be elements that feel disenfranchised.

“But there will be opportunities for them to play, and we’ll publish the policy more in due course.”