By Harry Awurumibe
The furore that has greeted the participation of three players of Tout Puissant Mazembe otherwise called TP Mazembe Ladies FC of Democratic Republic of Congo alleged to have high testosterone levels in the 2024 CAF Women’s Champions League (WCL) hosted by Morocco from 9 to 23 November, has made it imperative for the African football governing body, CAF to ensure that its Gender Verification Law is fully observed before the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) kicks off in Morocco next year.
Specifically, the criticism that greeted the participation of the trio of TP Mazembe’s Lacho Flora Marta, Marlène Kasaj and Merveille Kanjinga, alleged to have gender eligibility issues in the 4th edition of CAFWCL) tournament in Morocco has once again brought to the fore the vexed issue of gender eligibility in sports and in women’s football in particular.
The outcry against CAF’s decision to allow Marta, Marlène and Merveille to compete in the competition was so loud in Nigeria especially in the social media too where the netizens in particular lashed out at CAF for allowing the trio take part in the competition despite the cloud over their eligibility status.
Indeed, there was a deafening noise about the participation of these three players in Nigeria after they helped TP Mazembe beat Nigeria’s representatives Edo Queens FC 3-1 in the semi-final clash. The Congolese team scored three late goals to change the tide of the game and made their way into the final where they met and defeated AS FAR of Morocco 1-0 to lift the CAFWCL trophy for the first time. Both Merveille and Marlene scored in the match.
Photos of TP Mazembe’s Marta, Marlène and Merveille caused stirs online as netizens reacted angrily. The internet, especially X (formerly Twitter), went into a frenzy when photos of these players with masculine features surfaced.
Infact, one player, in particular, caught the attention of the public for having a beard on her chin-a trait typically associated with men-while others appeared muscular.
An X user Mpamba 1961 called for stricter regulations, saying “Testosterone level tests should be mandatory in female competitions, including in CAF women’s football competitions.”
Another wrote: “But why do some women display masculine features?” even as many others demanded for the full implementation of CAF Gender Verification Law if the game must be protected.
Indeed, the furore over gender eligibility in women’s football in Africa did not start today as CAF had many years ago acted on the complaints of gender eligibility against players of the Equatorial Guinea senior women’s football team.
CAF had on November 25, 2010 agreed to investigate claims about the gender of some players who played for Equatorial Guinea at the 2010 African Women’s Championship (AWC) in South Africa after Nigeria’s official complaint against Equatorial Guinea players in spite of the Super Falcons beating Equatorial Guinea 4-2 in the final of the tournament.
CAF acknowledged that Nigeria was the only country to have made a complaint despite the fact that Equatorial Guinea also beat Banyana Banyana and Ghana in the qualifiers, adding that the issue will be dealt with primarily by CAF Sports Medicine Group, although the Equatorial Guinean’s football federation had claimed that there was a “campaign of defamation” against the team, motivated by an “inferiority complex” from competitors jealous of the country’s progress in women’s soccer over the past decade.
But the accusation of “inferiority complex” by the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation against the complainants does not hold any water as gender questions about Equatorial Guinea senior women’s team have floated around for years, most notably at the 2008 African Championships, when the women’s team shocked Nigeria in the semi-finals on its way to win the title. Until then, Nigeria had won the tournament every year since its inception in 1998.
Irked by their continued use of ineligible players including players from Spain, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Nigeria (like striker Chinasa Okoro), NFF filed a protest with the CAF, accusing Equatorial Guinea of using two men in the 2010 edition. The country had got away with the infractions two years earlier.
Nigeria specifically singled out then captain Genoveva Anonma and striker Salimata Simpore and her sister Biliguisa, because of their high testosterone levels including their physical features like leg strength and skill levels too.
Curiously, other countries including Ghana did not protest formerly, but earlier in the tournament voiced suspicions about those two players as well as Salimata Simpore’s sister, Bilguisa with Black Queens of Ghana’s defender Diana Amkomah widely quoted as saying, “You only need to have physical contact with them on the pitch to know they are men.”
An accusation the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation also called “totally unfounded” and “evidence of an inferiority complex” from competitors jealous of the country’s progress in women’s soccer.
Interestingly, the Central West African nation had bamboozled her way to the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Germany at the back of the controversies after finishing Runners-up in the 2010 AWC. She joined the elite group of African countries to play in the global women’s football fiesta. Others are perennial participants Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa, Cote d’Ivoire, Morocco and Zambia.
However, following several complaints about Equatorial Guinea, CAF kicked the ‘Nzalang Femenino’ out of qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics for fielding ineligible players and the world football ruling body FIFA made the ban worldwide.
Also, in August 2016, Equatorial Guinea was banned by CAF from the next three editions of the Africa Women Cup of Nations now Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) for fielding a player using fraudulent documents.
FIFA had in April of the same year ruled that Equatorial Guinean’s Portugal-born Camila Maria do Carmo Nobre de Oliveira was found to have used two passports with different birth dates and two birth certificates. It then expelled them from 2020 Tokyo Olympics African preliminary qualifying matches.
In the same vein, CAF penalised Equatorial Guinea over the same issue and the women’s football team disqualified from the 2018 WAFCON in Ghana and the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France for fielding 10 ineligible players.
All 10 of the ineligible players were alleged to be born in Brazil, although the majority have been playing for Equatorial Guinea since the 2011 World Cup just as the ineligible players featured for the oil-rich African country during qualifying for the 2016 Olympics, while two other players provided “forged and falsified” documents to claim nationality, FIFA said in a statement.
The two players, Muriel Linda Mendoua Abessolo and Francisca Angue Ondo Asangono, have been banned for 10 matches, and the Equatorial Guinea Football Association fined 100,000 Swiss francs ($102,165) by FIFA.
Also, Kenya Football Federation petitioned CAF about the inclusion of player Annette Jacky Messomo, a Cameroonian who they said was in the Cameroonian team to the 2014 Nations Cup, although she did not play a single game but started playing for Equatorial Guinea in 2016 and had played for them against Kenya in the Nations Cup qualifiers.
Kenya protested her inclusion in the team and CAF consequently banned Equatorial Guinea from the Nations Cup.
However, there was a confusion as CAF reinstated Equatorial Guinea to the 2018 WAFCON despite serving FIFA ban after the country had initially been axed by CAF because Kenya protested the inclusion of Annette Jacky Messomo in the Equatorial Guinean team that played against Kenya in the qualifiers.
Despite the protest by Kenya, CAF reinstated Equatorial Guinea but the country was eliminated in the group stage, having lost three matches scandalously to Nigeria 6-0; South Africa 7-0 and Zambia 5-0. The country has not recovered from the after effects of the CAF and FIFA bans.
Now, fast forward to 2022, Zambia’s star player Barbra Banda was left off the Copper Queens’ WAFCON team after the Zambian Football Association (FAZ) claimed she failed a Gender-Verification Test. The test results were not made public, but some people accused Banda of being transgender.
The Zambia national team captain, Orlando Pride goalscorer and newly Crowned African Women’s Footballer of the Year 2024 was also told she could not play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup African qualifying matches on gender eligibility grounds, although Zambia still qualified for the women’s mundial without her contributions.
However, the immensely gifted player who prior to the ban won 2022 COSAFA Women’s Championship with Zambia and was voted COSAFA Women’s Championship top scorer and Chinese Women’s Super League Top scorer in 2020 was later reinstated to the team and made her debut at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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In recent time, there have been several gender-related issues in women’s football especially in Africa with the Equatorial Guinea and Zambia women’s team players greater in number until TP Mazembe Ladies team featured no fewer than three players with gender eligibility questions in the 2024 CAFWCL in Morocco which the club won for the first time.
Meanwhile, it has become imperative for CAF to implement fully its Gender Verification Law which stipulates that: “All players had to undergo gender verification prior to its competitions”. This is to ensure that women only are allowed to play women’s football for the fact that football stands on fairness without any undue advantage to one side.
In the spirit of Fairplay, CAF Medical Committee should insist on gender verification rule because should this rule fail to be applied then there will be chaos as every country and every team will recruit female players with high testosterone levels to compete in the 2024 WAFCON final holding in Morocco next July.
Fortunately, Nigeria must be commended for being in the forefront of sanitising the women’s game as the NFF had many years ago taken firm steps not to allow players with gender eligibility issues in the national teams no matter how good or important the player is to the team.
For this reason, Nigeria has played clean and won the WAFCON trophy for the unprecedented 11 times and her players won the CAF Women’s Footballer of the Year more than any other country in Africa without any blemish..
The country has religiously adhered to CAF rules which stipulates that all female players must undergo a pre-tournament gender verification test just as Nigeria follows the FIFA rules which stipulates the federations are to ensure players meet the gender criteria as it only asks for tests if there have been complaints about a player’s gender.
FIFA is understood to have its policy on players with elevated testosterone under review, insisting that it is monitoring the latest legal and medical updates. But it also stresses that it takes its ultimate guidance from the IOC.
The IOC is already under intense pressure to explain how it has allowed two boxers, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan, to compete against women in Paris despite failing biochemical sex tests last year.
Harry Awurumibe, is a women football expert
