By Kai Rebman
The World Federation of Swimmers (FINA) announced earlier this week that transgender competitions in the women’s category are now banned at international level. The decision was met with widespread support from experts in the sports world and the medical community, given the obvious advantages of biological males like Lia Thomas over their female competitors. Resistance arose among the inhabitants of the well-known bubble, who do not want to admit that there are actually only two sexes and that they have different, actually very obvious characteristics. The sex of a person can be determined by any lay person at birth and cannot be changed later in life. “You can’t argue away with biology,” said Ulm sports physician Jürgen Steinacker aptly.
As is to be expected, the German Football Association takes a completely opposite stance on FINA. In the recent past, the DFB has hardly missed an opportunity to be put in front of every available cart with free courage campaigns. The arena shining in the colors of the rainbow and the kneeling before the Nations League game against England, the interruption of Bundesliga games to break the fast during Ramadan or the ideology portal fussball.de operated by the DFB, which hardly ever gets by without a gender asterisk in an article, are just a few examples. The umbrella organization of German footballers has now published a press release on this very portal, in which a change in the “playing rights for trans*, inter* and non-binary people” is pointed out, which affects the entire amateur and youth sector nationwide. According to this, players with the civil status entry “diverse” or “unspecified”, which has been possible in Germany since 2018, should be able to freely choose the gender in which they want to chase the round leather. The only other requirement is that they have their gender “changed” or are currently in the process of doing so.
The fact that there are only a handful of people in Germany with one of the two aforementioned civil status entries (in 2019 there were 2,582) and even fewer of them play football is irrelevant for the DFB. After all, it’s about nothing less than hanging the rainbow-colored flag in the wind and making the “right” sign, even if it’s purely symbolic politics.
The new regulation is already effective for the new 2022/23 season
Apparently, the DFB cannot move fast enough with the woken pioneers’ promotion to the Champions League, which is why the new regulation should already apply to the 2022/23 season, which starts in a few days. The otherwise rigid and very strict change periods are also thrown overboard without further ado, but of course only “non-binary people” will benefit from this. From July 1, 2022, they can switch to the opposite sex “at a point in time that they determine themselves”. And doping guidelines are also overridden for intersex footballers. “As long as the sporting activity while taking medication does not affect the health of the person concerned, the person can take part in the game, which is why the new regulation excludes doping relevance,” says the DFB.
However, football in Germany is not breaking new ground with this rule change. As the DFB reports, the Berlin State Association (BFV) introduced a corresponding rule in 2019. Since then, this has been “successfully implemented in practice” and experience has shown that “competitive integrity is not endangered by this”. According to the DFB, all people have different strengths and skills that can only lead to success together in a team and regardless of gender. However, the BFV preferred not to comment on an inquiry as to what concrete “successes” could be achieved and how one comes to the conclusion that “competitive integrity is not endangered”.
Since there are apparently neither successes in this regard nor evidence of the allegedly maintained competitive integrity in and around Berlin, we would like to confront those responsible at the BFV with an uncomfortable truth and show them the world-wide differences between the two sexes. In recent years, several games have taken place in which a men’s team, a youth team and teams from the top shelf of women’s football have faced each other:
VfB Stuttgart (B-Juniors U17) – DFB women’s national team (then world champions) 3-0
Teltower FC (men’s national class) – Turbine Potsdam (German champions at the time) 10:3
Fortuna Seppenrade III (district league men) – 1. FC Cologne (women’s Bundesliga) 3:0
Eintracht Frankfurt (B-Juniors U16) – DFB women’s national team 2-0
Fortuna Düsseldorf (C-Juniors U15) – FCR 2001 Duisburg (Women’s Bundesliga) 11:0
Physical advantages of biological men remain
Now it is by no means the case that women cannot play football well, quite the opposite. The then coach of Teltower FC, who were victorious 10:3, even attested to the fact that the Turbinen played technically better football and was annoyed that his team had benefited “too much from the athletics” and less from their own playful elements. Martin Hess, who was on the pitch in the 3-0 victory of the VfB youth over the DFB women, expressed a very similar opinion. When asked what the women were missing, Hess replied: “Above all, they lack speed. Although they are well built, they play without physical effort. Technically, the women are as good as we are, and there is no lack of fighting spirit either.”
Later in his career, Martin Hess made a Bundesliga appearance for Eintracht Frankfurt, but spent most of his playing time with clubs from the third division down. Most youngsters, who play in the youth teams of Bundesliga clubs, but only very rarely make the big breakthrough, fared like the former VfB junior. For a relaxed 3-0 in a game shortened to 45 minutes against the reigning women’s world champion, that’s still enough due to the physical advantages. The overwhelming victories mentioned above underline this even more clearly.
With its ideologically motivated rule change, the DFB is risking nothing less than the death of women’s football in Germany. It’s not necessarily to be expected that any number of biological women will choose to try their luck with men. Conversely, a biological man who was born in the supposedly “wrong body” could kick several leagues higher. There is a consensus among medical professionals that the physical advantages of biological males persist even when they undergo surgical procedures and hormonal treatments for gender “adaptation”. Julian Reichelt commented on the DFB’s latest crazy idea on Twitter as follows: “Prognosis: Within three years no women’s team will be able to be successful if they don’t have two male strikers.” Nothing more can be added to that.
Contributions marked by name always reflect the opinion of the author, not mine. I value my readers as adults and want to offer them different perspectives so that they can form their own opinions.
Kai Rebmann is a publicist and publisher. He runs a publishing house and runs his own blog.
Image: Vitalii Vitleo / Shutterstock
Text: kr
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