Suzanne Wrack could have shed some light on Barbra Banda situation but in this piece she fails to discuss DSDs almost entirely, waffles about 'elevated testosterone levels' and then out of the blue starts talking about trans women, which conflates two different issues in exactly the same way many of Banda's abusers do.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2025/mar/29/how-barbra-banda-got-caught-up-in-a-swirl-of-misinformation-and-double-standards
"The unveiling of Banda as the BBC’s winner should have been a moment of celebration and it was, for herself, her teammates, fans, opposition players and the world of women’s football. But some – including JK Rowling and the former British Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies – used it as an opportunity to perpetuate a narrative about the involvement of trans and DSD (differences in sex development) athletes in women’s sport."
"Perpetuate a narrative" - presumably the fact that male advantage exists? Why does a journalist focused on women's sport dismiss this?
"In 2018 and 2022 Banda was not selected by the Football Association of Zambia (Faz) for either of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, organised by the Confederation of African Football (Caf). The Faz president, Andrew Kamanga, told BBC Sport Africa in 2022: “All the players had to undergo gender verification, a Caf requirement, and unfortunately she did not meet the criteria set by Caf.”
However, Caf said that it did not conduct testing on the player and that she had been withdrawn by Faz. BBC Sport has since reported that two sources told them that Banda did not take a gender eligibility test before the 2022 tournament.
At the time, her agent, Anton Maksimov, said she had not been banned or suspended by any governing body and said she had taken no tests. “She has not undergone and consequently has not failed any ‘gender verification’ or ‘gender eligibility tests’ administered prior to the tournament. Barbra is also perfectly healthy and fit.”
Multiple sources in a position to know have said the same to this reporter. Somewhere, someone was being economical with the truth and the evidence suggests that Banda, who was born and raised as a woman, is the victim of this misrepresentation of the facts."
Surely the evidence actually suggests that Banda, who has not taken a gender eligibility test and was 'born and raised as a woman' may have a male DSD. Taking a test - simple, uninvasive! - would clear this up immediately.
"Those most publicly affected by restrictions on testosterone levels in elite women’s sports have been non-Caucasian."
I'm sure she's right to suggest a lot of the athletes in question get horrific racial abuse. This is nothing to do with female testosterone levels, which may be higher in some ethnicities than others but are nowhere near male levels. By those "most publicly affected" by this she must mean athletes like Caster Semenya and Margaret Wambui who are, yes, non-caucasian but - crucially - have male DSDs and male testosterone levels. DSDs are far more likely to go unnoticed in poor, rural, often non-caucasian areas of the world until an athlete reaches international standard - there is racism in action here but not the kind Wrack thinks.
Then we get this sudden conflation with trans athletes:
"The reality is that the chances of a trans woman being able to compete as a top women’s football player, while not zero, are extremely slim. They would have had to transition at a very young age, gone through the development pathways and worked their way up to be at the requisite level, or would have to have been a relatively good athlete competing in men’s football before transitioning mid-career and then attempting to play in the women’s game.
What the hysteria over an almost impossible hypothetical situation does is open the door for transphobic and racist targeting of female football players"
The chances of a DSD male "born and raised as a woman" as Wrack says being able to compete in top level sport is extremely high, as anyone who saw the Rio Olympic 800m result would know (all three medallists male DSDs).
Otherwise the chances of an actual trans woman being able to compete is not an "almost impossible hypothetical situation" but just requires them to be good at the sport. She gives the game away by saying "a relatively good athlete competing in men's football" - she knows, deep down, that male advantage is real.
"For decades women have had to fight for the right to play sport and reap all the benefits – physical, social, mental, emotional – from it. Why on earth would we want to exclude trans people, some of the most marginalised in our society, from those experiences and benefits?"
All very nice and Be Kind. But if for decades women have had to fight for the right to play sport and reap the benefits - why on earth would we want to undermine the category they've worked so hard to establish?
Sorry for the screed. Here endeth the whinge. Poor old Barbra Banda - but if she does have a male DSD, that should be a female player there, winning the player of the year votes.