Zambia forward Barbra Banda is eligible to play at next year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup, says a leading Fifa women\u2019s football official. <\/span><\/p>\n The 22-year-old was excluded from this year\u2019s Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations by the Zambia FA (Faz) after the latter body said she failed a gender eligibility test. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWe are looking forward to welcoming her to Australia and New Zealand next year to participate,\u201d Sarai Bareman, Fifa\u2019s chief women\u2019s football officer, told BBC Sport Africa. <\/span><\/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. <\/span><\/p>\n However, these rules \u2013 which prompted Faz, rather than Caf, to exclude Banda from the Wafcon \u2013 are now being revised. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFifa is currently reviewing our gender eligibility regulations \u2013 we\u2019re in a consultation process right now,\u201d Bareman explained. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cMy team is obviously a big part of that consultation process and in the coming months, you\u2019ll see a new set of regulations come out of Fifa as many sports are also looking at their own regulations.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Banda shot to global prominence at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo when she became the first female player to <\/span>score consecutive hat-tricks<\/span> in the Games\u2019 long history. <\/span><\/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. <\/span><\/p>\n Football\u2019s world governing body estimates the new guidelines for gender eligibility will be released before the 2023 Women\u2019s World Cup but it remains non-committal on whether gender testing will be a mainstay of the women\u2019s game going forward. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a very complex topic and there are many, many people who have their views on it,\u201d Bareman explained. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs Fifa, our role is to take all those views into consideration, because we really have to understand every view \u2013 the research, evidence, individual situations, the human rights side of things \u2013 and we have to factor all of that in before we can take any decisions. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big decision, and it\u2019s going to have a big impact for many people.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n During July\u2019s 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. <\/span><\/p>\n Alongside Morocco, Zambia is one of five countries which will make their Women\u2019s World Cup debut in the 2023 tournament, which is being co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand. <\/span><\/p>\n After expanding next year\u2019s finals from 24 to 32 teams, Fifa\u2019s Bareman believes the tournament\u2019s growth will boost the development of women\u2019s football in Africa. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only positive from here,\u201d Bareman rallied. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLook at Zambia \u2013 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 \u2013 other countries see that and you can\u2019t underestimate the competitive value in Africa. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe expansion has really helped and will continue to drive other countries.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n Led by champions South Africa alongside perennial qualifiers Nigeria, debutants Zambia and Morocco make up Africa\u2019s four representatives at the finals. <\/span><\/p>\n Senegal and Cameroon have a chance to make it six teams for the continent when they compete in next year\u2019s inter-continental play-off to determine the last three teams to qualify for the June-August finals. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Talismanic captain Barbra Banda was absent from the Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations after Zambia\u2019s FA said she failed an eligibility test Zambia forward Barbra Banda is eligible to play at next year\u2019s Women\u2019s World Cup, says a leading Fifa women\u2019s football official. The 22-year-old was excluded from this year\u2019s Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1268421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1268420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1268420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1268420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1268420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}World Cup expansion to \u2018drive other countries\u2019 <\/h3>\n
![\"Zambia](\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/_128052973_b22gmwm10533.jpg\")
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