Gender Testing, Hermaphrodites, and African Football

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Thursday, January 08, 2009 10:08:20 PM T
Posted: Wednesday, January 07, 2009

CAF to introduce gender testing

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) are set to introduce gender testing before the next African Women Championship in 2010. Equatorial Guinea hosted and won the last edition, but their victory was tainted by protests from Cameroon and Nigeria that two of the players used were men.

CAF declined to act on the protests but KickOffNigeria.com gathered from the tournament's Technical Study Group, that the continental body had decided to act before the next tournament, which will also be the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup.

"CAF has made a ruling that before the next AWC, they will be doing medical testing before the tournament starts." However, the situation is complicated by the fact that even at FIFA level, the issue of hermaphrodites remains a grey area.

Players are classed as girls if they are menstruating, even if they have both male and female organs.

There are ongoing discussions on the matter at the highest levels of the women's game, but report says that genetic testing will commence to determine if the players have more male or female hormones, which is also under consideration.

The most high-profile case of a hermaphrodite in women's football was Nigeria's Iyabo Abade, who subsequently had surgery in the United States and is now living as a man.

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