An Australian women’s soccer team has finished their season undefeated after winning the league’s grand final. The team, the Flying Bats, has five trans-identified males in its ranks.
During the 2024 North West Sydney Football Women’s Premier Competition season, the Flying Bats won all 17 of their games, scoring 76 goals while only 8 were scored against them, Reduxx reported.
Journalist Lucy Zelic posted that, at the conclusion of the Sunday game, the Flying Bats had won 5-4 over West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Football Club. "Full-time. Flying Bats FC win the Premiership and the Grand Final. Trans-identified males will be crowned champions in the Women’s Premier League Division. Somehow, this is supposed to represent progress. Somewhere, the custodians of our game don’t care," she wrote, adding the hashtag "Save Women’s Sports."
One of the transgender players on the Flying Bats was issued a yellow card during the game, and another was named best on the ground.
The team had won $1,000 earlier in the year after winning every game in the North West Sydney League pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup.
An attendee of the Sunday game told Australian talk radio presenter Ben Fordham, "There was quite a high security presence up there, and… they were actually doing bag checks to make sure no one had brought in any sort of device to film the game any bigger than a mobile phone."
"I was told by security that they’d had to ask one person who refused to let them into their bag to leave the premises. So they were clamping down on people there trying to take footage… because The Flying Bats are a hot topic in football circles these days," he added.
The attendee, identified only as David, said the opposing team had a "really vocal crowd," adding, "you should have heard the boos coming from the West Pennant Hills crowd section. It was deafening."
Regulations from the North West Sydney Football Association states that "players may register and participate on the basis of their gender identification."
While the identities of the nine total trans-identified males in Australian leagues "have been thoroughly protected and withheld by Australian media," Reduxx has revealed that one of the five trans-identified males on the Flying Bats is Riley Dennis, who has been accused of injuring female athletes while playing on a different team. Dennis was previously a player on the Inter Lions team from New South Wales. Reduxx faced threats from the Australian government over the reveal of the player.
Flying Bats FC states on its website that it’s the "biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world."
Under its Gender & Sex Diversity Policy, the club states, "We know that the topic of trans women in sport has been used as a political football in recent years, which makes our support for this part of our community even more urgent and important."
"While we are primarily a women’s club, we recognise that gender is not binary, and not all people who are part of our club are, or identify as, cisgender women. Research shows that trans, gender diverse, non-binary, and intersex people face significant barriers when accessing and participating in sport, and that when they do participate, they frequently face discrimination and harassment."
