The announcement by the team came Wednesday, just over a week after the Pride faced Gotham during their home opener in New Jersey on Sunday, March 23.
Gotham was made aware of the incident and responded by addressing the individual and monitoring the situation at the time before launching an investigation, according to an initial statement. Another statement released Wednesday says the team’s investigation with the National Women’s Soccer League culminated in several interviews with fans and stadium, team and league personnel, as well as a review of security logs.
The team found that the fan in question “violated the NWSL Fan Code of Conduct,” and will no longer be able to attend Gotham FC events.
The Orlando Pride released a statement shortly after the incident:
“The Orlando Pride has been made aware of the incident involving hateful language directed at Barbra Banda during the team’s match against Gotham FC. The Pride are united in this message alongside the NWSL and Gotham FC: This behavior is unacceptable and has no place in our league or in our stadiums. Barbra is an outstanding role model and an influential advocate for soccer both in Africa and here in the United States.”
The Pride told Orlando Weekly it had no further comment to share as of Thursday afternoon.
While neither the Orlando Pride or Gotham FC have stated what language was used during the incident, fans have taken to social media claiming Banda was targeted with transphobic comments.
One Reddit user writes, “Gotham season ticket holders expressed bigotry towards Barbra Banda that stemmed from the racist, transphobic conspiracies that were spread about her after she earned the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year award last year.”
The post, shared Monday, March 24, goes on to read, “One fan got pulled aside by security after he cheered for Banda falling down and yelled ‘she shouldn’t be on the field anyway!’ I was gratified to see security speak to him, but all he got was a warning.”
The user updated their post to share that they provided information about the incident to a Gotham official. Both teams’ official responses were also shared that same day.
The Zambian-born soccer player signed with the Orlando Pride in March 2024, and has since been recognized as a vital player to the team, scoring a goal that led the Pride to victory in the 2024 NWSL Challenge Cup, and being awarded the BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year title in November 2024.
In the shadow of her success was a spur of conspiracy theories regarding her gender and a wave of online attacks, most notably maintained by vocal anti-trans author J.K. Rowling after quoting a post about Banda’s award from the BBC on her X account.
Banda is a cisgender woman.
Gotham punctuated its statement by saying, “Threatening, abusive or discriminatory behavior or language of any kind has no place at Gotham FC events.”
The club encourages fans to report inappropriate behavior via encrypted text message service RavenEye to directly reach stadium incident management. The text line is available at 973-566-5001.
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This article appears in Apr 2-8, 2025.
