Back in February of 2024, a group of women got together for the first-ever training session for Jokes F.C. An inclusive football team, that wasn’t focused entirely on playing the game but created a movement that was welcoming for everyone who showed up and wanted to kick a ball around a bit whilst having a laugh.
We sat down with founder Jamie Currie for a chat about how it’s been going over the last year, the evolution of the club, and now what the SFA’s ruling on transgender players means for this trans/non-binary inclusive club. We also spoke to one of their players, Emma Harvey, a keen footballer from a young age who, like most women, stopped playing as a teenager but in her twenties has had a lot of health complications to navigate, pushing her to get back into the sport.
Edinburgh is no stranger to football, with Hibernian winning the SWPL just this weekend, and both men’s teams (Hearts and Hibs) in the top 10 of the SPL. Amateur teams are floating around the city, but for both founder Jamie and players like Emma, it was one of the main focuses for the team that this be more about fun and friendship rather than competition. Jamie explains her reasons for starting the club in the first place, despite questioning her choice to start the club in February: “It started as a desire to make friends and it was the end of a long winter, when everyone was coming out of hibernation. Quite a few of my friends had moved away at that point, so I was looking for a way to meet people that didn’t involve the pub. I also work remotely, so there’s not much opportunity to meet people organically. I wanted an active setting, where there was still that chance to be social.”
For Jamie, she never set out for it to be an inclusive group in a sense that she didn’t go in to it with that goal: “There are a lot of clubs that are exclusively for men in Edinburgh, so I wanted to create a welcoming space for people who might be struggling to find it. A lot of people will reach out and say they’ve not played since school, or they’ve never played, but is it okay if they join and I always tell them, that’s what it’s all about, we’re all in the same boat,
“I wanted a space where people are comfortable enough in themselves that playing football is the focus more than anything.”
With the news of the SFA ruling at the beginning of this month, that states from the start of the 2025/26 season only those born a women will be able to play in SFA governed football games, we asked Jamie how this would affect them as a team: “Nothing will change for us. Trans people have always and will always be included in our team. We’re not playing at a level where we’re policing people’s identity, nor would we ever want to. It means that going forward, it will limit what we might take part in. If it were SFA-affiliated, we obviously wouldn’t be taking part. It was hard for us to see the ruling come out, but at the end of the day, we are a grassroots team, and competition isn’t our sole focus. It’s about community and inclusion, so as much as we can stay away from that rhetoric, we will always stand up for the trans community.”
When it came to even deciding what sports team they would be, Jamie had a few different things she was looking at. Costs were the main one, there wasn’t much equipment cost for them, and in Edinburgh, there is plenty of open space, so they didn’t need to worry about that either. Luckily, there are plenty of drills on YouTube for her to follow and do with the players, so it was simple: “How hard can football be? We’ll just learn together. There’s a low entry barrier, so it made it more accessible for players wanting to join in.” It is worth mentioning that as the club has grown, there’s now a committee, and they have two coaches, so no more YouTube videos for Jokes F.C (thankfully).
For players like Emma, who first started playing football at a young age, through primary school for her local team and part of the way through high school (until the team stopped running because of lack of funding and interest for women’s football): “It was always just a casual hobby for me but I loved playing and some of my favourite memories are from football,
“I think through my teenage years and university there were so many new and exciting things happening I never thought much about playing. It wasn’t until after I had graduated uni that I started thinking about it a bit more and how much I used to love it.”
Over the years she had looked into it a few times but most of what she found seemed to be league teams or more serious, structured teams which is not what she was on the look out for: “Football for me was always about fun and I was only going to start playing again if I found a team where that was the focus.”
When Emma came across Jokes F.C it was coming at the perfect time: “I think I was at a point in my life where I was feeling a bit unfulfilled, after graduating from uni I had settled into my 9-5 routine but didn’t really have any hobbies.” Having lived in Edinburgh for almost a decade, the typical thing that happens in your mid-twenties has happened, friends move away, and people begin to have their own routine. For Emma, having something that she knows will be on every week, where she can socialise as well being active but without the pressure that often comes from sports ticked all the boxes for her.
Over the past year, the club has grown from being a bit of fun to something that people have taken notice of. It started as Jamie, her girlfriend and some flatmates she managed to rope in. Then a few other people turned up because they had come across the team on Instagram. A shoutout on the local radio, also gained them some members. For a while, there were about six people playing each week, but as summer started, the numbers began to grow. With that, they set up a committee and signed themselves up as a CIC (community interest company), which allows them to apply for funding for equipment: “We’re now at a point where we’ve had to cap recruitment. We don’t charge a membership fee, so it’s a struggle for us right now to let everyone join. Once we’re able to bring a bit more money, then we can open up to more players.”
We asked Jamie what they were hoping to achieve over the next year as a club. Firstly, they’re hoping to raise some money for a set a goals, more equipment, and they’re on the lookout for a five-a-side league to take part in: “We want to grow sustainably but also foster the community we already have.”
So often at SW/S we love to hear the stories of women where their health and wellbeing have benefitted from taking part in all kinds of sports. For Emma that is more than true.
As someone who has struggled with heath issues over the last few years, in a time where those issues can be particularly difficult to navigate, joining Jokes F.C gave her the energy to get herself back into sports whilst also being able to manage her health issues in a healthy way: “I struggled with my weight and relationship with exercise, it was important for me to be careful in the way I introduce any form of exercise into my life. Football was an amazing way to do that because the focus was on having fun and the social aspect of things rather than the actual exercise. I have introduced other forms of exercise healthily into my life, like going to the gym, but I would be lying if I said there had never been moments where my mindset towards this has slipped back into an unhealthy attitude. But with football I have never had this, I have always gone to football purely because I really enjoy it, the fact I am getting some exercise is just an added bonus.”
At 23 Emma was also diagnosed with osteoporosis. Something else she has to consider when exercising: “To be honest I don’t have a full understanding of how this impacts what I should be doing when it comes to sports and exercise wise, it’s probably something I should be more wary of football wise, or maybe at least buy some shin pads.”
Luckily she knows enough to know she can’t do anything that’s particularly high impact or puts too much stress on her body. Because Jokes F.C is friendly football and there’s not pressure to play to a certain level, she can exert as much effort or run about as much as she’s comfortable with: “Football is a good way of getting in cardio exercise for me. The most important thing for me was being able to exercise without putting too much mental or physical stress on my body and I’ve found that a team sport like football has been a great way to do this,
“One thing I will say is that football has had an incredible impact on my mental health. The endorphins from running around plus the social aspect. It was actually pretty scary for me to go for the first time but after my first training from both the exercise plus doing something pretty anxiety inducing was amazing.”
Working an office job and generally being an independent lady, Emma has found that the team skills she’s developed through being part of Jokes F.C have had a positive impact on her working life: “Jokes FC has such a good community feel I do really feel like I am a part of something. I think now I am a bit older I’m a lot less self conscious and can just run around and have fun without caring too much.” She even has a scarf to prove it.
If this has inspired you to join Jokes F.C, you will have most likely noticed they have closed admissions. You can always sign up for their waiting list, but if that’s not good enough, then why not start your own team? We asked Jamie what she would tell other women looking to start their own team: “Honestly, it would be great if people would, because it would give us more people to play with, but it wasn’t even that difficult to start. All I really did was start an Instagram account and put some word-of-mouth feelers out there. You have to be consistent though. Sometimes, if it’s raining, you don’t want to be out there kicking a ball around, but people need to know that you’ll be there in rain or shine every week, so they will stick with you. It’s all about building that community. Which we have now. We’ve been organising fundraisers, and we even had a member who got a team scarf designed,
“Just do it, it’s easier than you think.”
For Emma it’s a fairly similar answer on joining a club if you come across the opportunity to do so: “Do it do it do it. It’s honestly one of the best things I’ve done over the last couple of years. It think from my other answers it’s pretty clear it’s had a great impact on my physical and mental health,
“For me, joining a football club was so scary and I was incredibly nervous the first time I went but I think it’s really important to push yourself with these kind of things and it’s so so rewarding to get out of your comfort zone. Jokes FC were so so welcoming and I felt at ease almost immediately when I went. So yeah even if it is scary, do it.”
You can follow Jokes F.C on Instagram.
They are also hosting a joint fundraising event with Porty Queers on 30th May. Tickets can be purchased here.
If you’re looking for advice as an individual or as a sports team after the ruling on the definition of a woman, LEAP Sports has put together a concise signposting tool to help with support after this verdict.
