Madrid
A regional soccer team of all transgender men achieved federated status in Spain, becoming Europe’s first all-trans team to do so.
Hugo Martinez told Reuters he began to form the team three years ago, after facing insults and threats from the players, coaches and parents of teams he used to play on. Unable to continue with an all-female team after starting hormonal treatments and barred from joining the men’s team without formally updated identification, he posted an online call proposing the new team.
Now named Fenix FC — symbolizing transformation and rebirth — the team was incorporated into a local club in northeast Spain and competes in the country’s fifth tier. Team captain Luke Ibanez told Reuters that joining Fenix mitigated his previous hesitations to join other men’s teams.
“Fenix is a team of trans boys created entirely by trans boys, but I think it’s more than that — a family, a safe space, where you can be free and express yourself however you want,” Ibanez said.
Fenix is based in Catalonia, which saw a record of 302 cases of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination or violence in 2023. That year, Spain passed Ley Trans, a law allowing individuals to change their legal sex with varying restrictions depending on age.
Sydney
Cyclist Lachlan Morton finished his lap around Australia after 30 days, nine hours and 59 minutes, breaking the previous record by a week.
The Road Record Association of Australia deems that official attempts of “The Lap” need to be at least 14,200 kilometers and pass through Adelaide, Brisbane, Broome, Darwin, Esperance, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Since Arthur Richardson spent 245 days making the trip in 1899, dozens have attempted — with the most recent record set in 2011.
Morton’s trip covered over 8,800 miles, leaving him to cycle for 17 to 18 hours a day. Forced to face rain, headwinds and extreme temperatures, he started his day at midnight in an effort to beat heat and traffic and generally slept around 5 p.m.— another component Morton cited as a challenge.
Accompanied by his wife and childhood coach, as well as a masseuse and bike mechanic, Morton’s trip was documented by EF Education-EasyPost, his professional cycling team. In the 30 days, he raised roughly $90,000 for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to provide resources for children living in remote communities, specifically those he traveled through during the trip.
“It felt fitting to work with an organization that is helping kids deal with those unique challenges,” Morton told The Guardian. “Everyone deserves to have access to a good education.”
London
Judges ruled that some of the Premier League’s guidelines unfairly restrict football teams’ sponsorships, leaving the league to restructure its financial governance.
Manchester City sued the league, arguing that its Associate Party Transactions regulations breach the competition and public laws and have been unfairly applied to certain clubs. The regulations are intended to ensure fair commercial value is applied across clubs in the league, and that wealthy individuals who have significant interest in the team don’t inflate its value with sponsorships and other revenue sourcing.
The verdict supported two of City’s claims, ruling that the league had been “specifically unfair” applying the rules to an Abu Dhabi-owned club and that shareholder funds should not be excluded from APT’s scope. The league has since released a statement proclaiming that the court “upheld the need for the APT system as a whole and rejected the majority of Manchester City’s challenges.”
“Call it a stalemate if you want,” sports lawyer Yasin Patel told the BBC. “Ultimately, both parties will walk away here thinking they’ve got a bit of a bloody nose.”
City is currently facing 115 charges of financial breach in a separate lawsuit initiated by Premier League.
Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected].
