If what Caf are saying on their web (www.cafonline.com), where their Medical Doctor Yacine Zerguini is quoted saying that the just concluded 9th African U-17 Championship was staged without the players’ age coming into question, then credit for Ferwafa, in our case. Caf confirms that all players who took part in the 2011 tournament held here early this month, submitted to the program for age determination by MRI initiated by the continental football governing body.
If what Caf are saying on their web (www.cafonline.com), where their Medical Doctor Yacine Zerguini is quoted saying that the just concluded 9th African U-17 Championship was staged without the players’ age coming into question, then credit for Ferwafa, in our case.
Caf confirms that all players who took part in the 2011 tournament held here early this month, submitted to the program for age determination by MRI initiated by the continental football governing body.
According to Wikipedia, MRI [Magnetic resonance imaging] is a "medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures. MRI makes use of the property of Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to image nuclei of atoms inside the body.”
In fact, the Confederation of African Football is coming out to say they are, and I quote, "ready to proudly showcase to the rest of the world the success of the MRI test programme following the successful use of the technology for the 9th edition of the CAF African U17 championship Rwanda 2011.”
Dr Zerguini says that the use of MRI "had not only ensured that every player and team competed on an equal footing but opened an excellent opportunity for new players to emerge and the rest of the football world to follow.”
The issue of players’ age and or their age-cheating, is an open secret, especially in Africa, Asia, South America and some parts of Europe, it’s a phenomenon that has gripped the football world for ages.
When discussing this issue, we don’t have to look further than at our own players, and without mentioning names, we all know or have heard of players in this country, who have been constantly between the age of 24 and 27 (years) for the last eight years.
And, since this article is not meant to pick and name or shame any individual, I’m not going to go into cases where we have seen players, who, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see that they’re well and truly above the age-limit teams they’ve been playing for.
But, thanks mainly to Caf’s determination to crack down on a trend that, for ages, has left the continent with a tainted image, particularly when African players, on very many occasions, have been found out [on their true age], the vice could be history in not so distant future.
Two years ago, when Fifa were introducing MRI scans for the first time, Caf was stunned in the run-up to the U-17 World Cup in Nigeria, wary of the tests, Africa’s competitors decided it was perhaps wiser to do their own tests before the finals - and the results were very much against them, leading to teams dropping several players.
Over the years, countless players, including some of the continent’s biggest stars, have found their real ages to be the subject of debate, while comments from losing coaches at world youth championships where African teams have always dominant, illustrate how the world perceives ‘us’ [Africans] as far as age-cheating is concerned.
African players, in an attempt to step up in the world game when European scouts come down hunting young talent, end up lying about their age as a way of leveling the challenges most of them face in rising to the top, and since most don’t even have birth certificates, it’s hard for the scouts to prove otherwise.
Two years ago, eventual winners, Gambia were forced to drop over a dozen players from their initial squad for being over-age. Cases of players’ age-cheating are rampant with West African players, but this not t say, the players from other parts of the continent don’t cut their age to fit the bill, but because the west dominates when comes to playing going professional.
Without our own to talk about as product of youth level football, we always talk about the likes of Michael Essien, John Obi Mikel, Alex Song, Mahamadou Diarra, Seydou Keita, the Toure brother [Kolo and Yaya] and so many others who have used the U-17 tournament as a springboard to eventual contracts with some of the biggest clubs in the Europe.
But after the 9th edition, where the Junior Wasps were beaten finalists, and having used players of real age, and if Caf’s revelations are anything to go by, then, I think credit should go to the local football federation people for selecting players with the right age when they went in every corner of the country scouting for young talents for the national football academy, and also these other academies from which the U-17 team were selected.
The introduction of MRI tests for these age-limit tournament, it appears as though gone should be the days of players with wives and children in their homes, playing for the U-17 team—the beautiful game is about fair play and it doesn’t, any more, need 35-year-olds claiming to be 24, as we continue to see even with the current senior national team.