BBC women's footballer of the Year

I love the way the bbc report it as ‘gender issues’. I’m not familiar with this case but from the comments I can she he is a guy. I’m just so so fed up of this. What is going to happen in 30, 40 years… no more women in sport, no single sex spaces. It will be a perverts delight in prison.

seriously I can’t believe people in power are allowing this. It’ll be working class women. The smug middle class will be safe in their universities denying all responsibility as the abuse is covered up and the odd story manages to get some air time in the media imagine the complicity of left wing news - nothing can break the TWaW narrative.

eurgh. When I die I’m leaving all my money to GC causes, every f penny

Firstly, I found that people from overseas are allowed to vote in this competition and there were other footballers from other countries.

I also looked into it by googling the term 'Vote for Banda'. I found a number of facebook and X campaigns encouraging people to vote for Banda from TR Sportzm - the 'Home of Zambian Football'. On Facebook for example, they promoted it multiple times and they have 119,000 followers. They also promoted it on X. They were persistent, including when Banda was in 4th place on 6th October (a woman from Barcelona was occupying the top slot at that point) . The same organisation has promoted Banda for other awards too.

Banda got support elsewhere as well - for example, a public figure called Linda Kasonde on X, who has over 37k followers and encouraged them to vote.

In one sense, you can't blame 'The Home Of Zambian Football' for promoting their own. Would love to know whether English Football promoted the 2 English candidates, or indeed, what support they had from their home teams, public figures etc.

I do also wonder why we are paying for this rubbish from our license fee, and who it was in the 'expert panel' who decided to include Banda in the first place.

Agreed. Kundananji is more of a skills player, but Banda is all about pace and power.

I'm not sure Banda is really a "skills" player. I think it's all about the (possibly male) speed and strength. This from my son's video game.

https://www.futbin.com/25/player/55671/barbra-banda

Banda is not eligible for this award and it should be removed.

This is the thrust of my complaint to the BBC.

Banda's skills should be tested in the appropriate sex category and see how they hold up.

Have just confirmed complaint to BBC

You'd have thought boot manufacturers would be getting ahead of the game now and designing boots for women. But the fact is that ACL injuries are widespread for men in football and both rugby codes, and again, many contend that the modern design of boots is partly to blame.

We shouldn't think too harshly of the Lionesses for not speaking out. I heard a programme on BBC Radio 4 last year talking about why female footballers (the actual XX type) have more ACL injuries proportionately to males. The difference is biology, and women playing in boots designed for men. The programme discussed the fact that most players were putting up with this for fear of losing sponsors - we all know there is less earning potential for women in football and that sponsorship pots are much small than those for men. I remember there being much hand-wringing about these inequality, so the BBC does occasionally care about women footballers.

The irony of course is that Barbra Banda doesn't have to worry as much as his team mates do about a career-ending ACL tear as his boots probably fit him well, so he may well continue his fraudulent career much longer.

Also, all this hopping from sport to sport by males with DSD just speaks of wanting to be at the top of the game, any game will do. Meanwhile the girls growing up and giving their life's passion to their beloved sport are losing places to them 😡

Sorry I've not been able to find the programme I mentioned, but this is a BBC article on the subject www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/64032536.amp

Indeed. 🤦‍♀️ Thank god they didn't ask Nigel Farage to explain it all too. Although apparently Nigel's authority on the difference between the sexes works much better than anyone else's for Alastair Campbell (just as Tony Blair is apparently far easier to understand than Rosie Duffield - despite her saying the same thing - for Keir Starmer).

Also Joey Barton's words were daft.

He talked about Banda being "closer to a man".

Erm.

Banda either is or isn't a man. There's no such thing as someone closer to being a man or closer to being a woman. The journalist should have picked up on this as it's perpetuating a false understanding of DSDs.

I was thinking of getting a TV licence... now, no way.

Get with the programme ladies.
Men make better women than actual women, isn't it obvious?

Seriously, the number of times men have "won" female competitions (international beauty pageants, government positions for women, athletics, company spokespersons, awards like "female XXX of the year" etc), there has GOT to be an agenda. Has to be.
There are some people very high up who are pushing this for whatever reason.

The question is WHY.

Joey Barton? FGS! Why not ask Timmy Robertson, too?

How "neutral" eh? Not like it was impossible to swerve this by picking out of the massive pool of actual female footballers who don't have elevated testosterone and aren't banned

Complaint webpage
https://www.bbc.co.uk/contact/complaints

I've complained to the BBC, utterly sick of this shit.

it feels like they are trolling women at this point.

Having Joey Barton on your side in an argument never did anyone a favour. Can't the Mail find a better rent-a-quote?

This and other genetically male players.. Banda is not the only one!!

No XY in Womens' Sport. Football need to follow Athletics, Swimming, Rowing, Rugby....

There were iirc 5 candidates. Women voting for women had their votes split between four worthy candidates. Tras, mischievous men and the like all voted for Banda. It was inevitable BB would win. The issue with the BB!C (was it the initials?) was who they put on the list. I would like to know what the criteria was for inclusion. Was it a strict set of qualifications and the organisation's hands were tied by their own rules? Or was it a bunch of people sat round a table throwing out names with some sort of justification. I suspect it was the latter and BB could easily have been passed over.

It is possible that the voting was real...

Bandas name and profile was first up as the nominees were listed alphbetically, this does play a part... click on the first one.

Also, on the face of it, without knowledge of chromosomes, Banda is an amazing player, hat trick in the olympics, powerful international player, coming from a minor footballing nation.. it is a great story. Just one that is missing some crucial facts. There may also be an element of backlash from the false narrative that any critism of Banda lies in racism, gender stereotypes, transphobia... and therefore deserves a vote.

It may also be subconscious voting by males for males.

It is shocking that NWSL, FIFA and the IOC have all played a part in welcoming this male player into female football. It is also shocking that journalists, officials, coaches etc remain silent. There is no one around that player, in the sport, in the world of journalism that believes Banda is XX.

They may believe that the world should move on from gender binary and that they need to move with the times, that to speak would be to side with Trump or the hard right, they may be willfully ignoring the reasons for the existance of the female category, they may be going against their own instincts, they may fear backlash, they may be protecting their careers but they do not believe Banda is XX.

Not only do they put a man forward as woman of the year, they're even willing to sit with all the fall out and spend time trying to back up their position, all rather than just put a woman forward for woman of the year.

How does someone get nominated for this?

I'd love to win an award and I do meet the mandatory ONE of the eligibility requirements. I am also quite willing to identify as a footballer.

In addition I'm pretty old and also disabled, which would help the BBC show just how inclusive they are...

Complaint made to the BBC

If the vote was open worldwide, Banda will have got a lot of votes from American fans. I follow the NWSL and whenever this comes up on online groups, the popular opinion is that it doesn't matter if Banda has a DSD. It's a 'natural physical advantage' and comparable to being tall.

I mentioned on the other thread ( which is still up btw) that I had suggested a mass MN vote for one of the candidates.
It's obvious that the TRAs voted for Banda.
I wonder if we could get hold of the voting numbers. Will they be in the public domain?

As usual the TAs are twisting the facts as you say. They are the ones being racist.

The reality is the Confederation of African Football run by Africans, after a sex verification test found that Banda's natural testosterone levels were above those allowed in their rules and banned him in 2022. These conflict with the more lenient rules of the Olympics and other non African sporting groups.

Accusing CAF who fought against apartheid and who have been hugely expanding women's football across Africa of being racist and sexist is clearly nonsense. There has been a lot of opposition to allowing women to play sport in Africa. CAF has made huge strides.

This is a case of the BBC and other Westerners telling Africans they are too stupid to run their own organisations and to formulate fair rules. Which is crazy considering CAF was founded over sixty years ago. Kind of seems a bit racist to me.