Sport, Equality & Discrimination – Annual Review 2025/26
Welcome to the Equality & Discrimination chapter of LawInSport’s Annual Review 2025/26. In the last year, the topic of equality in sport has rarely left the front page. The Supreme Court ruled on the legal definition of ‘sex’ for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 in For Women Scotland, resulting in several governing bodies revisiting their eligibility policies; World Athletics, World Boxing and the IOC all moved to mandatory SRY-based sex testing for the female category, drawing legal challenges from Imane Khelif and renewed scrutiny in the wake of Caster Semenya’s partial victory in Strasbourg. An additional statutory obligation for employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment (in the course of an individual’s employment) came into force in the UK back in 2024, and a wider third-party harassment duty under the Employment Rights Act 2025 is due to follow in October 2026. Racist abuse directed at Jess Carter, Antoine Semenyo, Vinicius Jr and others forced stoppages, arrests, and FIFA to form a panel of former players to address the matter. And finally, a new Activity Alliance study causes us to ask a hard question about disability and appropriate role models in sport: are we celebrating Paralympians in a way that empowers disabled athletes, or in a way that quietly shames them?
This chapter pulls these threads together - the cases, the legislation, the governing-body policies and the cultural shift - and asks where sport goes from here. Whether you advise a national governing body, run a club, represent athletes or simply follow the game, the developments below will shape the season ahead.
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- Tags: Athletics | Boxing | Discrimination | ECB | ECHR | Employment Rights Act 2025 | Equality | Equality Act 2006 (EqA 2006) | Equality Act 2010 | FIFA | Football | IOC | Olympics | Paralympics | Rugby | The FA | UEFA | UK
Written by
Sophie Cashell
Sophie is a Barrister at Littleton Chambers, and an active member of the Littleton Sports Law Group. She accepts instructions in all of Chambers’ main areas of practice, including sports law, an area she has a keen interest in. Her experience includes assisting in a sports-related investigation into the strengths and weaknesses of one of the organisation’s Olympic programmes, which included investigating safeguarding concerns. Sophie is also a member of the SCMP Legal Advice Service.
Lydia Banerjee
Lydia Banerjee co-leaders the Littleton Sports law group. Lydia regularly acts as counsel and/or as arbitrator in varioussports; particularly by reference to her expertise in safeguarding, athlete welfare and equalities law issues. She frequently appears as a panellist and speaker at domestic and international sporting conferences, is on the LawInSport Editorial Board and on the Sports Resolutions panel of arbitrators.
