A young woman who previously played soccer in Australia’s Premier League has come forward to reveal that she was retaliated against for having expressed opposition to playing against a women’s team that includes five trans-identified males. During an interview with radio host Ben Fordham of 2GB in Sydney, Sophia explained that after she had refused to play in a match against the Flying Bats, she was “iced out” and benched by her own team.
The Flying Bats describe themselves on their website as “the biggest LGBTQIA+ women’s and non-binary football club in the world.” Originally founded in 1985 as a football club for lesbians, they now welcome “everybody from across the rainbow family… [and] especially encourage trans and gender-diverse folks to join us, with research showing that access to safe community sport can help improve the mental and physical well-being of minority and oppressed groups.”
In March 2024, Reduxx reported that five male players, who identified as transgender or non-binary, joined the team for the winter 2024 Premier League of the North West Sydney Football Association (NWSFA) that was to take place over the coming months.
The team dominated the pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup, netting a $1,000 prize. With the news that the men had joined, racking up victory after victory, 24 women dropped out of playing in the league in protest. The decision was influenced by reports that the men had repeatedly injured some of the female players to the point of no longer being able to play football.
By August, the Flying Bats had won the NWSFA Premier League, having gone the season completely undefeated. They hadn’t lost a single game among the 17 they had played, although six of those were because the opposition had forfeited the game in silent protest.
Sophia, now 20, was 18 at the time when her football club decided they would not be among the six teams to forfeit the match against the Flying Bats. However, Sophia, who told Fordham she was “scared” to compete against the men, told her teammates she would refuse to play against them.
“So my local club decided not to forfeit, although a lot of other clubs did,” Sophia said. “We were expected to play against [the Flying Bats] on a Sunday, and I flat out refused. I said, ‘No, thank you, I just don’t feel comfortable.'”
“Put aside ethics and beliefs, let’s just look here at the main issue,” Sophia continued. “I was 18 at the time, a young girl, and I was expected to go against a team that had five biological males on the team. Males’ muscle mass, bone density, the effects of testosterone after puberty – they are physically stronger, it’s a known fact whether we want to believe it or not.”
Fordham and Sophia then discussed their impressions after seeing videos of the male athletes on the Flying Bats team during matches.
“When I was seeing the videos of them playing against other clubs, I was scared,” she told Fordham. “My dad, my whole family were backing my decision to not play.”
Sophia went on to explain that she told her teammates directly that she refused to play against the “inclusive” women’s team, and expressed her reasons for doing so. “This actually led me to being a little bit iced out. Then, following the Flying Bats games, I was starting on the bench. My whole years of playing soccer, I never was a player who had to start on the bench… With that local club, I had got a Golden Boot, for scoring the most goals in one season.”
Despite attempts by sporting authorities to restrict spectators from filming during matches – even going so far to have allegedly been performing bag searches prior to admission – videos have been leaked and circulated showing the male athletes competing against women.
In particular, one clip depicts trans activist Riley Dennis – who stands over 6 feet tall – tripping and injuring a female player during a competition. At the time, Dennis was playing for the Inter Lions FC, but later moved to the Flying Bats.
On May 21, 2023, during a game between Inter Lions and the St. George football clubs at the Majors Bay Reserve, Dennis launched his smaller female opponent towards a metal fence using an aggressive tackle as the two chased down the ball.
Reduxx was provided footage of the match, which showed the female player laying on her side, unmoving, as the trans-identified male player casually walked away. The month prior, Dennis was said to have injured another female player, who reportedly had to seek hospital attention as a result of her injury.
Dennis is one of two trans-identified male football players who has been engaged in a lawsuit against women’s rights advocate Kirralie Smith. In December, Smith was found guilty by a New South Wales court of “unlawfully vilifying” Dennis for referring to him with male pronouns and raising public awareness of his inclusion in women’s sports after learning of injuries sustained by female players.
In a similar circumstance, another, though as-yet-unnamed male player for the Flying Bats, is said to have broken a female player’s leg in two places.
Reduxx spoke with Frank Parisi, president of St. Patrick’s Football Club, who confirmed that after “a clumsy tackle from behind,” a woman playing for his team “had her leg broken in two places, and she’s no longer playing football.”
“One of our players rushed over to try to help her, she was screaming in so much pain. At that time, she made a derogatory remark to the Bats player, which we apologized for. [She was] suspended. The Bats player, nothing happened to [him].” Parisi clarified that following this incident, the player was suspended from matches for a total of eight weeks.
Knowledge of injuries sustained by female players during matches with the Flying Bats, Parisi said, had at the time resulted in at least 20 women self-excluding from his own football club alone.
In response to growing opposition, heads of Football New South Wales (FNSW) and North West Sydney Football (NWSF), John Tsatsimas and Matthew Geracitano, convened a meeting in March 2024 and required the attendance of all football club presidents under their jurisdiction. During the March 20 meeting attendees were told that a decision to boycott participation by forfeiting matches against The Flying Bats would result in “disciplinary action” being issued.
Additionally, Geracitano sent an email to all club presidents citing policies put forward by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in the Online Safety Act 2021. The email states that possible violations of the legislation include “publishing private or identifying information about an individual with malicious intent to cause serious harm,” and cautions that “individuals responsible for posting seriously harmful material” can be fined up to $111,000.
More recently, the women of the Northern Suburbs Football Association were reportedly forced to sign an agreement that explicitly barred them from forfeiting matches against the Flying Bats LGBTQIA+ football club. The Northern Suburbs Football Association (NSFA) is a newly-created group which includes the NWSFA, and is intended to host the Women’s Super League – intended to replace the Premier League as the top division. In a press release at the time, the associations said that the leagues would be made up of 14 teams total, taken from both associations.
A whistleblower who contacted Ben Fordham in April stated that the NSFA had forced all players in the Super League to sign a disturbing agreement.
“The agreements state that teams will not forfeit playing the Flying Bats, who have the male-born players. This does not sit well with me,” they said in a statement read out on the station. The whistleblower noted that the NSFA had a newly appointed president, and wished to retain anonymity out of fear of repercussions.
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