Osasu Obayiuwana Profile picture
Jul 6 10 tweets 8 min read
Breaking: I have spent the last half-hour with a @CAF_Online official, explaining, off the record, their #WAFCON2022 position on #TeamZambia ‘s @BarbraBanda11. It was a deeply robust discussion and I will disclose what he said. (A thread…)
“Osasu, everyone is criticising us for Banda. But I have one question - did @FAZFootball submit her name as a member of #TeamZambia for the #WAFCON? They never did, at any time. So, how can we talk about a player that was never put forward for registration or registered?”
@FAZFootball never did, at any time, tell us that @BarbraBanda11 had any issue that made her ineligible for the #WAFCON in #Morocco. That is the truth of the matter. We are not obligated to ask why a country did not register a player for it. That’s an internal matter.”
I asked the @CAF_Online official if @FAZFootball had intimated them of any issue making @BarbraBanda11 ineligible to play at the #WAFCON2022 - “At no time did Zambia tell us about any concern, regarding Banda. We cannot address what was never brought to us.”
“I can categorically say that CAF did not exclude @BarbraBanda11 from the #WAFCON, and certainly not for medical reasons,” he went on. As you would agree, CAF’s position provides more questions than answers…
How does this sit with the statement of @FAZFootball president Andrew Kamanga, who emphatically told @BBCAfrica’s @cjkaroney that Banda was excluded from the #WAFCON2022 for failing CAF’s gender tests?
Kamanga: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a CAF requirement and unfortunately, she did not meet the criteria set by CAF.”👇🏾
bbc.com/sport/africa/6…
I asked the @CAF_Online official about the statement they were to release about Banda on Tuesday. “We opted not to release this statement, because we felt that we need to protect the player, who is being put in the centre of a storm that could jeopardise her career,” he said.
But how is the player protected, now it is public that @BarbraBanda11 failed to meet the @CAF_Online gender/DSD guidelines? Why did she fail the test? Why was she able to play at the @Tokyo2020 @Olympics only a year before? We are nowhere near getting to the bottom of this!
This is the official @FAZFootball statement on @BarbraBanda11, released on Wednesday.

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More from @osasuo

Jul 5
Breaking: @CAF_Online refuse to issue a statement on why @BarbraBanda11 is ineligible to play for #TeamZambia at the #WAFCON2022, despite a discussion between @FAZFootball & CAF officials on Monday, on the matter.
Correction: the online meeting between @FAZFootball & @CAF_Online was on Tuesday morning.
I am made to understand that @FAZFootball have made it clear that they are holding @CAF_Online fully responsible for @BarbraBanda11’s exclusion from the #WAFCON2022, as a consequence of the gender rules they imposed. More details to follow, as it comes…
Read 5 tweets
Jul 5
If there was no @FIFAWorldCup, and just an #AFCON, would he have switched, #Ghana folks? Just wondering…
This is what Inaki said to @guardian_sport in September 2021: "Ghana tried to convince me, but I was born in Spain, in Bilbao. I won’t ever forget my family roots, but I feel Basque and can’t con anyone. I would be comfortable with Ghana, I’m sure, but I shouldn’t be there …”
"My parents are from Accra and I really enjoy going. But I wasn’t born or raised there, my culture’s here, and there are players for whom it would mean more. I don’t think it would be right to take the place of someone who really deserves to go and who feels Ghana 100%.”
Read 4 tweets
Jul 5
From what my #TeamZambia source is saying, and documentation, @CAF_Online clearly has gender/DSD rules players must meet, before they are eligible to play at the #WAFCON, which begs the question: What rules did Barbara Banda fail to meet, that she met for the 2020 @Olympics?
I understand that @CAF_Online is going to release a formal statement to state their position. I hope they do that ASAP, because in Banda’s case, it is coming FOUR YEARS late. There are more questions than answers at the moment.
Every national team doctor at the @CAF_Online #WAFCON has to sign this declaration, which states that every player has been “examined by them or an APPROPRIATE SPECIALIST, to VERIFY their gender.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 5
The controversy over the absence of #TeamZambia’s  Barbara Banda from the #WAFCON2022  in Morocco, for unexplained “medical reasons” continues, as @FAZFootball President Andrew Kamanga confronts @CAF_Online President Motsepe for his comments on the matter, made on Sunday.
Kamanga, according to @bedjosessien (who eye-witnessed the discussion) spoke directly with Motsepe and chastised him for speaking on the Banda issue, when he was clearly not briefed on the matter, telling Motsepe that he shouldn’t have commented on the matter.
It is alleged, but there is no confirmation of it, that gender DSD issues are at the root of Banda’s strange absence from the #WAFCON2022 . Her participation at the @Tokyo2020 @Olympics, where she played without problems for #TeamZambia, only heightens the controversy.
Read 5 tweets
Jun 13
An @LMCNPFL official has seen this and messaged me to say there was nothing wrong with the additional time given in this match. I am waiting for an official explanation of how the length of time can be justified. NPFL matches are not shown on television…
“During the first half, the referee awarded a penalty to @LobiStars, which the @HeartlandFC_ng keeper stopped…But he hit the post & got injured. He was treated for about 9 minutes before he was substituted, so the first half got additional 8 minutes,” the LMC official says.
“During the second half the ref again awarded a second “soft” penalty against Heartland (the goal scored on the video ☝🏾). They protested & held up the game for another 8 minutes, arguing and even threatening to abandon the match but decided to continue.”
Read 7 tweets
May 15
Just to remind @CAF_Online: On 17th July 2019, at the @CairoMarriott, the exco took a decision, in writing, that the single-game #CAFCL will be played at a NEUTRAL ground. It is in Point 4 of the minutes of that meeting, of which I have a copy and have read.
Here are the minutes. 👇🏾
The relevant extract: “Moreover, drawing lessons from the problems encountered during [the] return match of the final of the [2019] Champions League and Confederation Cup, the executive committee decided THAT THE FINALS WILL BE PLAYED IN ONE MATCH AND ON NEUTRAL GROUND.”
Read 6 tweets

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