Football Association say 'fairness' will be sport's priority in transgender debate

The Football Association has promised to prioritise "fairness" for competing athletes as the game considers following rugby league and swimming in toughening transgender rules.

Both English football's national governing body and Fifa are in the process of refining the current "case by case" approach to restrictions in female categories across the game.

After a week in which the Culture Secretary and Lord Coe hinted elite sport must be uncompromising, Debbie Hewitt, the FA's chairwoman, admitted football faces some difficult decisions. "I think it is a really tricky subject," she said. "We talk about inclusiveness but it has to be inclusive for everybody and it has to be fair - that’s the line that any sports administrator has to think about. Is the competition fair and are we making sure that it is inclusion on both sides?

Transgender athletes in all sports are facing the prospect of potential rule changes after week which has seen swimming, rugby league, and, to a lesser extent, cycling announce tougher rules in women's sport.

Women's international rugby league matches will no longer allow trans women to compete, the International Rugby League (IRL) said on Tuesday. The announcement came just 36 hours after Fina, swimming's world governing body, voted to stop transgender competitors from taking part in women's races if they have gone through part of male puberty.

World Athletics president Lord Coe has also hinted track and field could follow swimming in banning transgender athletes from elite competition.

Football is at a less advanced stage in announcing a shake up at the elite level. Fifa is in the early stages of a consultation for the international game. However, after Nadine Dorries signalled she had a more relaxed