There have been a lot of concerns surrounding age cheating among African teams since time immemorial, and teams have ended up being disqualified from age-restricted tournaments or completely banned for age-cheating offenses.
Two weeks after being set to compete in the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have been forced to deal with difficulties involving over-aged youngsters in their provisional teams.
The qualifying matches slated for January 14 and 24, 2023, will be hosted by the Central African Football Federation’s Union (UNIFFAC), which the two countries are members of.
Last week, the Cameroonian Football Federation (FECAFOOT) announced that 21 out of the 30 players selected to represent their nation failed the age test.
FECAFOOT managed to find replacements for the disqualified players, meaning Cameroon will now have a team to represent them at the tournament they will be hosting.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), however, is the most recent team to face age-cheating problems and have been forced to withdraw from the UNIFFAC Under-17 Championship after the majority of its players were found to have failed the MRI tests for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in Douala.
The under-17 national team has withdrawn from the under-17 regional qualification tournament, according to a statement made on Monday by the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFA).
The Federation has disclosed that only 15 players were eligible with 25 failing the MRI tests out of the 40 players that were submitted.
“Unfortunately, on the 15 validated players (after MRI test), the procedures for obtaining passports have not worked out for 10 players, which puts our selection in the impossible to be in Douala on January 10, 2023, to undergo,” read part of the statement.
Only 5 of the 15 players qualified for the DR Congo managed to pass the administrative processes to obtain VISAs, which meant the remaining 10 players did not meet the other conditions, preventing DR Congo from fielding a squad to compete.
The UNIFFAC Under-17 Championship will now only consist of four teams: Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Chad, and the Central African Republic due to the most recent age-cheating setback.
From the four teams competing in the qualifying competition between January 12 and January 24, two will advance to the Under-17 Nations Cup finals in Algeria in April.
