FIFA Will Allow Barbra Banda To Captain Zambia At Women's World Cup 12 Months After She Failed WAFCON Gender Eligibility Tests

Barbra Banda will captain Zambia at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer.

The 23-year-old forward has been cleared to represent her country at the tournament by FIFA, despite having been denied the chance to compete at last year's Women's Africa Cup of Nations after failing gender eligibility tests.

Banda, who plays her club soccer for Chinese side Shanghai Shengli, featured for Zambia at the Olympic Games in 2021 but failed to meet the required criteria to play at WAFCON 2022 due to her abnormally high levels of testosterone.

Barbra Banda pictured playing for the Zambia women's national team during a friendly match against Germany last week

IMAGO/Sportfoto Zink/PeKo

Speaking last year, Andrew Kamanga, the president of the Football Association of Zambia, told BBC Sport: "All the players had to undergo gender verification, a CAF (Confederation of African Football) requirement, and unfortunately she did not meet the criteria set by CAF.

"It's unfortunate that we find ourselves going into the tournament without our best players."

Without Banda, Zambia went on to finish third, after losing to eventual champions South Africa in the semi-finals.

Banda, who has scored 30 international goals since 2017, will be allowed to play at the World Cup because FIFA have permitted teams to undergo their own internal gender assessments.

German newspaper BILD last week published a statement from FIFA that read: "The World Cup participants assure that they carry out their own investigations and that they clearly show that their players are female."

Today's gender eligibility exams generally involve DNA or blood tests.

But before the 2011 Women's World Cup, players were required to have their genitalia identified by a FIFA-commissioned doctor.

Former Sweden midfielder Nilla Fischer recently described the process in her new book, 'I Didn't Even Say Half Of It'.

Fischer called the procedure "sick and humiliating", adding: "We were told that we should not shave 'down there' in the coming days and that we will show our genitalia for the doctor.

"No one understands the thing about shaving but we do as we are told and think 'how did it get to this?'"

Banda scored two goals last Friday as Zambia beat Germany 3-2 in a warm-up game in Furth.

Zambia have been drawn in World Cup Group C alongside Costa Rica, Japan and Spain.