NWSL’s lack of gender eligibility policy leaves players vulnerable – but not in the way you think

The National Women’s Soccer League has quietly adopted no policies regarding the gender eligibility of its players in more than three years. The league might have hoped that its silence on this lack of policy would be interpreted as an openness to revisiting or reworking its approach, or at least neutrality when it comes to the inclusion of trans and intersex players.

But the league and Commissioner Jessica Berman’s silence have instead repeatedly incited harassment of current players — to whom such a policy would in no way apply — particularly Black and queer players.

And on Monday, that lack of policy also prompted current NWSL advocate Elizabeth Eddy to call for the adoption of a “clear standard” for gender eligibility, proposing that NWSL players must be born with ovaries, or potentially undergo genetic testing or other similar verification in an opinion piece published by the New York Post.

In response, a league spokesperson said the NWSL “is committed to working directly with the NWSL Players Association on any changes to our league policies” to ensure player voices are “at the heart of our processes and (this) reinforces our commitment to inclusion, trust and transparency.”

“The NWSLPA serves as the collective voice of all NWSL players. Any policy matters must be negotiated collectively,” an NWSLPA spokesperson said in a statement to Athletics. “Any position taken by the NWSLPA on behalf of the collective in collective bargaining is and will be the product of a thoughtful and deliberate process that engages all of our members and the issues that are important to them. »

Angel City FC released a statement Tuesday in response to the editorial.

“We would like to make it clear that while we respect an individual’s right to express their opinion, this does not reflect the opinion of an organization as a whole,” the statement said. “Angel City has remained committed to equity, inclusion and belonging.”

The 34-year-old free agent signed with Angel City as a national team replacement player in 2023, before extending her contract through the 2025 season. The Los Angeles team plays its final game of the year on Sunday, after failing to qualify for the NWSL playoffs.

Eddy first posted his thoughts on a potential NWSL policy Sunday evening on his X account. On Monday morning, the New York Post published a nearly identical article on his behalf. In it, she cites “recent controversies in women’s sports” involving the participation of transgender and intersex athletes, citing swimming and track and field. She highlighted recent policy changes from the relevant governing bodies, World Athletics and the English Football Association.

“I’m proud to have played a small role in transforming our league from a struggling startup to a supercharged celebrity maker,” Eddy wrote in her column. “I’ve been a part of winning seven titles: three NWSL championships, three regular season titles and an International Champions Cup. But I fear that if it’s not clear who the league is for, it will lose its identity and momentum.”

Eddy and I agree on one thing here. The league hasn’t specified who it’s aimed at because it hasn’t drawn a line in the sand when it comes to inclusiveness.

“We will continually live by our values ​​and support everyone in our ecosystem, including our fans, our players, our employees, in every community where we operate,” Berman said in 2024. What was not specified was how the league defines those values.

The NWSL has not had a policy governing the inclusion or exclusion of trans players since 2022. According to a report by the Guardian, the league abandoned a 2021 policy at an unknown date without any public acknowledgment in early 2022, before Berman was installed as NWSL commissioner.

Until Monday, the NWSL league office had made no public statement about the lack of policy or what protections they may or may not put in place. Currently, no trans-identifying players play in the NWSL.

As the Guardian wrote in July, the lack of policy has attracted interest from outside forces and organizations who say they believe the best way to “protect” women’s sports is to restrict them. Eddy’s column reflects and reinforces this ideology.

“By abandoning this policy without a plan in place and relying on the refrain ‘we will live by our values,’ you need to clearly articulate what those values ​​are in a transparent way,” Julie Kliegman, who has written extensively on gender and sports, said after Eddy’s column surfaced on social media. “Ultimately, you’re just fueling the ‘debate’ in an unproductive way.

“Eddy’s language is dehumanizing. It’s restrictive, it’s not inclusive,” Kliegman said. “It’s happening across all sports right now. It’s obviously not specific to the NWSL.”

Figures across the league reacted to Eddy’s column on Monday. Orlando Pride athletic director Haley Carter wrote on Bluesky: “Our game doesn’t need goalkeepers. It needs champions and defenders and that means defending every player that makes it what it is.”

The Spirit Squadron, the Washington Spirit supporters group, the Rose City Riveters, the Portland Thorns supporters group, and the Blue Crew, the KC Current supporters group, also pushed back Eddy’s column.

Alt text in the thread below

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– KC Blue Crew (@kcbluecrew.com) October 28, 2025 at 10:14 a.m.

“You either protect your players or you don’t,” Kliegman said. “Not just your players, your potential future players too.”

The league has taken some steps in the right direction on that front, implementing two social media and online abuse moderation tools this year, as promised, an NWSL spokesperson confirmed Monday.

“You have to take a stand,” Kliegman said. “It has to be clear, it has to be transparent and it has to be inclusive. Otherwise, that neutral ground isn’t really that neutral, because it leaves room for players like Eddy to lead the conversation.”

The league was put in a difficult situation Monday with Eddy’s column. Their statement does not fully and publicly support their players, choosing instead to defer to players’ comments on league policy – ​​but the league did what it could to limit the circulation of Eddy’s column by responding only to individual media inquiries. It’s unclear whether the league or players’ association were aware of Eddy’s concerns prior to his post. But with the league failing to intervene on Barbra Banda’s behalf last year following online bad faith attacks from JK Rowling and more, she must continue to speak out to avoid even more harassment.

Despite the lack of a current policy, what we can take away from the NWSL and NWSLPA’s statements is that they will likely address and make changes collectively with an emphasis on putting players first.

Eddy notes in his opinion piece that fans have used “uncertainty” around policies to harass players — most notably Banda during a Gotham FC match earlier this year — but doesn’t make the logical leap that a column like this will be weaponized in exactly the same way.

The NY Post played fully into this strategy, choosing a photo of Banda as the featured image for Eddy’s column. In the story, the caption states that Banda “faced harassment from spectators over gender eligibility issues.” No such eligibility issue has ever arisen in the NWSL, or any other governing body. Banda has never violated any policy and has never been subject to any gender verification testing. Yet here we are again, talking about Banda.

So how can we accept this argument in good faith when Eddy chose a public forum, likely to endanger her fellow players, when Eddy claims she is trying to “protect” women’s sports?

“Unfortunately, when money, power and fame are at stake, which inevitably happens in professional sports, competitors may try to pressure what is fair or equitable,” concludes Eddy. “Especially when the goal of winning requires using every available advantage.”

The problem here for Eddy is that there is no indication that this has ever happened in the NWSL, or that it would ever happen in the NWSL. There are currently no trans players in the league. The league’s owners and technical staff aren’t currently thinking in training centers across the country about how to sign a player who could push the boundaries of a policy that doesn’t even exist.

Eddy uses her NWSL resume as a perennial winner to justify her position. So it’s worth examining his legacy within the NWSL and those title-winning teams. While Eddy was a regular starter for the 2016 Western New York Flash that won the 2016 NWSL Championship, her playing time for the rest of those titles was minimal. According to his recorded minutes on FBRef, during the North Carolina Courage’s three years of dominance from 2017 to 2019, Eddy played a total of 222 minutes. Since moving to Angel City in 2023, she has only appeared for a total of 87 minutes over three seasons.

Compare Eddy’s editorial to a 2023 offer from former Portland Thorns defender and USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn. She also won three NWSL championships, one NWSL Shield, two Women’s World Cups and an Olympic gold medal, among other trophies.

“Since I started playing soccer, I have faced countless challenges to gender equity in sports, from pay disparities to unsafe working conditions,” Sauerbrunn wrote. “I can assure you that playing with or against transgender women and girls does not pose a threat to women’s sport.”

If we have to choose between listening to what poses an existential threat to women’s sports – or the NWSL – between these two title winners, who would you rather hear?

Melanie Anzidei contributed to this report.