Trans tweet football fan fights match ban
Newcastle supporter may take legal action over club and league’s ‘Stasi-style’ transphobia investigation
A FOOTBALL fan who was banned from attending matches after expressing gender-critical views on social media has started crowd-funding legal action against Newcastle United and the Premier League.
Linzi Smith was barred by the club after a “Stasi” spying investigation into her, which detailed where she lived, worked and even walked her dog. It was launched after someone wrote to the club accusing her of being transphobic.
The 34-year-old, who is gay and promotes lesbian, bisexual and women’s rights, has now raised £15,000 through a crowdfunding campaign supported by fans and free speech campaigners.
Lawyers fighting her case have now written to the club and the league demanding compensation and an end to the ban. Ms Smith is prepared to take her case to court if they refuse to comply. Her legal team says the Premier League club discriminated against her after she expressed legally protected beliefs that people cannot change their sex.
Levins Solicitors also say the Premier League and the club had no “lawful basis” for snooping on her.
Ms Smith told The Telegraph: “I always thought we lived in a society where people could express their opinions freely. The actions of Newcastle United and the Premier League have had a hugely detrimental effect on me, and it seems that legal action is the only way to ensure that these powerful organisations understand the law and the right that everyone has to freedom of speech.”
Ms Smith was accused of being transphobic by a complainant who told the football club that trans people would not feel safe sitting near her, even though her posts on X (formerly Twitter) had no connection to Newcastle United. As first revealed by The Tele
graph, the club asked the Premier League to carry out an investigation into Ms Smith without her knowledge.
The resulting dossier was handed by Newcastle United to Northumbria Police, who then interviewed Ms Smith under caution. Officers took just two hours to tell her that she had not committed an offence, but the club, which had spent months looking into her background, revoked her membership and banned her from games until 2026.
She has said the club and the league “have behaved like the Stasi” and that she feels “violated”.
Ms Smith, who runs a tea shop with her mother, had posted tweets in which she suggested the trans lobby was homophobic because it wanted to “trans the gay away” and that some transgender people were suffering from mental illness.
Newcastle United and the Premier League were contacted for comment.