Young Transmascs Find a Home in Homme Football Club

The transmasculine football club Homme FC has become a haven for its members, providing a space for them to connect and be themselves. Founded in May 2025, the club began as a WhatsApp group for transmasculine people in London looking for a space to play football together.

Homme FC's founder and creative director, Areena Ang, envisioned the club as more than just a football team. "We think football is the language and the vehicle of bringing people together here, but we're definitely more than just a football club," they explain. "I also viewed the club as an art project or as a materialisation of a 'social practice'."

The club's artistic side is reflected in a photo series called Homme Apartment, which was shot by photographer Indi Setyawan in an 1980s hospital wing in West London. The series imagines a fictional physical space where Homme FC's players could pile onto sofas after practice, hunch over pool tables and lift weights in the sweaty locker rooms.

Homme Apartment pulls from a mix of references, including Ang's own childhood spent watching American television and scrolling through Tumblr. Ang points to gay and lesbian ephemera, including XY, the 90s gay youth magazine, as references. "What I've always loved about the photographs XY produced is how it narrativised an alternative coming of age for young gay men," they say.

The project isn't simply trying to recreate the images its drawing from. "What's interesting is that those spaces have historically represented a very narrow version of masculinity - straight, cisgender and exclusive. Rather than rejecting those images entirely, I wanted to ask what happens if we simply place different people inside them," Ang explains.

Setyawan and Ang worked without a budget to pull the shoot together. Initially conceived as a locker-room story, the unique location opened up a different direction: its wood-panelled corridors; dated, gaudy interiors and basement pool tables brought to mind college dormitories, allowing the pair to construct a fictional world where "these trans boys lived together, hung out after classes, played pool, borrowed each other's clothes."

One of the standout images shows a player, Helly, standing at the centre of the basement beside the pool tables. "I think Indi captured the grain beautifully in this image. The composition and the image itself feels cinematic to me," Ang says, pointing to Gus Van Sant's Elephant as a reference.

Another favourite image for both Ang and Setyawan shows a player, Sara, in the building's yellow bathroom, swinging from one of the cubicle doors. "I think this just so beautifully captures joy," Setyawan says. "It's boyish, young, fun and stylish all at once."

The photograph also takes on a different significance amid increasing political scrutiny around trans people's access to single-sex spaces in the UK. "Bathrooms are such politically loaded spaces for trans people," Ang explains. "But in our photograph it's just friends getting ready together, fixing each other's hair, laughing."

That sense of ease is central to what Homme FC wants to offer its community. "To have a transmasculine+ focused space is rare, and an opportunity to truly be seen," Ang explains. Some members had never felt welcome in football, while others had stopped playing because of sexism, transphobia or a lack of pathways to continue.

Homme FC has plans for more regular sessions and a new Camden pitch, alongside parties, a new kit and further creative projects. Eventually, they hope to build a permanent community hub for the club, much like the one imagined in the project. "Hopefully, in twenty years, someone can look back at these photographs and understand something about how we saw ourselves," Ang says.

**A Space for Self-Expression**

Homme FC's vision is not just about football, but about creating a space for self-expression and community. The club's artistic side is reflected in the photo series Homme Apartment, which imagines a fictional physical space where the players can connect and be themselves.

**A Haven for Transmasculine People**

Homme FC offers a rare space for transmasculine people to connect and be themselves. The club's founder, Areena Ang, explains that some members had never felt welcome in football, while others had stopped playing because of sexism, transphobia or a lack of pathways to continue.

**Looking Ahead**

Homme FC has plans for more regular sessions and a new Camden pitch, alongside parties, a new kit and further creative projects. Eventually, they hope to build a permanent community hub for the club, much like the one imagined in the project.