Zambia Women’s national team captain, Barbra Banda has been cleared to participate in the upcoming 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup game in Australia and New Zealand following initial decisions not to allow her to feature in the prestigious tournament.
Read Also: ANFASSC Unveils New Set Of Jerseys Ahead Of FIFA Women’s World Cup
The build-up to the sanction was her failure during the gender eligibility test’ but she will now be able to defend the Zambian colors because FIFA will let teams do their own investigations on such trivial matters.
Having missed out on the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations after demonstrating excessively high levels of testosterone during a gender eligibility test, Banda scored twice to marshal Zambia to a shock 3-2 win over Germany in a warm-up friendly last Friday.
Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and affects developmental changes in men during their adolescence – heightening bone density and muscle strength among other things.
However, Banda is allowed to play at the Women’s World Cup this month because FIFA has permitted teams to undergo their own internal investigations.
The governing body told German outlet BILD: “The World Cup participants assure that they carry out their own investigations and that they clearly show that their players are female.”
Banda, 23, is a forward for Chinese outfit Shanghai Shengli and has scored 30 goals for Zambia since her debut in 2016.
She scored a stunning brace against Germany last Friday, showing blistering pace to score the winner deep into injury time on the counter-attack.
Despite missing out on the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations, Banda competed at the 2020 Olympic Games, making history by scoring two hat-tricks in Tokyo.
