The 22-year-old was excluded from this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations by the Zambia FA (Faz) after the latter body said she failed a gender eligibility test.<\/p>\n
“We are looking forward to welcoming her to Australia and New Zealand next year to participate,” Sarai Bareman, Fifa’s chief women’s football officer, told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n
Faz has previously said it excluded its best player from the finals given its understanding of a medical form the Confederation of African Football (Caf) adopted from Fifa.<\/p>\n
However, these rules – which prompted Faz, rather than Caf, to exclude Banda from the Wafcon – are now being revised.<\/p>\n
“Fifa is currently reviewing our gender eligibility regulations – we’re in a consultation process right now,” Bareman explained.<\/p>\n
“My team is obviously a big part of that consultation process and in the coming months, you’ll see a new set of regulations come out of Fifa as many sports are also looking at their own regulations.”<\/p>\n
Banda shot to global prominence at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo when she became the first female player to score consecutive hat-tricks in the Games’ long history.<\/p>\n
After sitting out Wafcon, she returned to the national team in September and helped Zambia win a regional southern African title for the first time, emerging as both the top scorer and best player of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Football’s world governing body estimates the new guidelines for gender eligibility will be released before the 2023 Women’s World Cup but it remains non-committal on whether gender testing will be a mainstay of the women’s game going forward.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very complex topic and there are many, many people who have their views on it,” Bareman explained.<\/p>\n
“As Fifa, our role is to take all those views into consideration, because we really have to understand every view – the research, evidence, individual situations, the human rights side of things – and we have to factor all of that in before we can take any decisions.<\/p>\n
“It’s a big decision, and it’s going to have a big impact for many people.”<\/p>\n
During July’s Wafcon in Morocco, Faz said three other potential squad members were also affected by gender eligibility criteria and were thus not chosen to compete at the tournament.<\/p>\n
World Cup expansion to ‘drive other countries’<\/p>\n
Alongside Morocco, Zambia is one of five countries which will make their Women’s World Cup debut in the 2023 tournament, which is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
After expanding next year’s finals from 24 to 32 teams, Fifa’s Bareman believes the tournament’s growth will boost the development of women’s football in Africa.<\/p>\n
“It’s only positive from here,” Bareman rallied.<\/p>\n
“Look at Zambia – when a country like that qualifies for the first time ever, the flow-on effect for the game in the country is massive. They did so well at the Olympics as well – other countries see that and you can’t underestimate the competitive value in Africa.<\/p>\n
“The expansion has really helped and will continue to drive other countries.”<\/p>\n
Led by champions South Africa alongside perennial qualifiers Nigeria, debutants Zambia and Morocco make up Africa’s four representatives at the finals.<\/p>\n
Senegal and Cameroon have a chance to make it six teams for the continent when they compete in next year’s inter-continental play-off to determine the last three teams to qualify for the June-August finals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zambia forward Barbra Banda is eligible to play at next year’s Women’s World Cup, says a leading Fifa women’s football official.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":24617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4],"tags":[7,14,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-24620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"category-sports","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n