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FIFA UNDER 17 WORLD CUP AND AGE CHEATING

September 24th, 2009 | By: sscouser | 18 Comments »

On Monday 31 August 2009 FIFA had announced that in order to “protect the integrity” of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Nigeria 2009, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) will be used randomly to identify players who may be above the age of 17.

There are some reports that Nigeria, the host of the tournament which will take place next month, recently dropped 15 players from their Under-17 World Cup squad, after learning that there would be random tests to determine the ages of team members. Wait a minute, NFF acknowledges over-aged players in U-17: An NFF statement said 15 of the 36 players in the team had been dropped after they failed a Magnetic Reasonance Imaging (MRI) scan.

It has long been suspected that past sides (and Nigeria have won three World under-17 Championships) have had age cheats but Nigeria is among the first associations to have shown any willingness to try to tackle the issue.

There have been past admissions of cheating, almost all of them long after the fact, while some teams have been caught trying to change the date of birth of players, who had been previously registered for other competitions.

There are also unconfirmed reports that: “A total of 51 Gambian youngsters (Baby Scorpions) underwent MRI scans in Senegal to help determine their ages ahead of the upcoming Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria” and “very few of the players failed the test”.

When the “Baby Scorpions” eliminated Sierra Leone, the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) was quick to protest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) alleging that Gambia used over-aged players in the CAF contest. The three players in question were Bojang Ebrima, Samateh Lamin, and Kawusu Japp. Gambian football authorities quickly dismissed the claims, saying that Sierra Leone was just bitter over the defeat. Gambia’s Team Manager (Abdoulie Bangura) in his own words:

“The allegations made against our players are false. We don’t cheat in any competition we enter, and we’ll never cheat. The players in question are eligible to play because they are within the age bracket. The Sierra Leone team officials want their fans to take their minds off the bitter defeat they suffered from us.”

It seems the allegations were false because Gambia ended up winning the trophy. Had the allegations been true Gambia would have been disqualified. The Junior Flames (Malawi) made it to semi-finals by default. They replaced Young Menas of Niger who were disqualified for age cheating.

Age cheating will not go away because the stakes are high. This can be likened to the situation in Baseball. Some Baseball players took Performance Enhancement Drugs even after some were caught. Back to football (soccer), the higher the risk the higher the return. Usually, a player over 20 “appears” to be more talented than a player under 17 when both are playing for Under 17 Teams. So, the player over 20 has a greater chance of being picked by teams in Europe. Steal millions of dollars, repent and then live happily thereafter.

I think FIFA needs to continue doing the random testing but if a player is caught for age cheating, not only should his team be disqualified but the team should also pay the costs of the tests and banned for the next 10 years. That way, the Football Associations will take age-cheating seriously. Age cheating should be caught by Football Associations and not FIFA. How can a player who started playing for Under-17 ten years ago be still playing for Under-17? Made it to Under-17 team when he was 7? Don’t even need an MRI.

The problem with this random testing is that (I think) it only targets those players who look order than 17. Some people look younger than they are (I admire Chinese and Korean people) while others look older than they are. When Lebron James was 23 years old and if he were playing for an Under-23 football (soccer) team, I am quite sure that other teams would have alleged that he was over 23. So while doing these random tests they shouldn’t just look at somebody’s appearance because looks can be deceiving. How old is Chelsea’s Mikel Obi?

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Comments

By Onyungo | September 24th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

Why are you Malawians aimed at tarnishing our good image?

Nigeria bans movie ‘District 9′ featuring Malawian actor
http://www.nyasatimes.com/national/nigeria-bans-sci-fi-movie-district-9-starring-malawian-actor.html

By Tim | September 25th, 2009 at 7:42 am

Let Gambia get disqualified so Malawi can get Bronze.

By TK | September 25th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

Onyungo,

The story above is not related to what you are talking about.Please go back to Nyasa Times and post your comment am sure there are so many Malawians eager to answer that.But since you asked let me just say this for the record….It will not take a Malawian to turnish your image.Your image is already turnished and its the works of your fellow Nigerians.Ask around.The whole world knows what the likes of you is all about.

By sscouser | September 25th, 2009 at 9:54 pm

Onyungo, first of all, just because I blog about Malawi National Teams doesn’t make me Malawian. Secondly, please ‘don’t shoot the messenger”. Am I the NFF?:

“The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has finally acknowledged reports that many players in the country’s Under-17 national team are over-aged, throwing spanners in the country’s preparations for the forthcoming 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup.”

Tim, it seems these allegations are from long time ago when the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) alleged that the Gambia side used three over-aged players during their encounter with Sierra Leone’s U-17 team whom they beat 7-1 on aggregate (Just sour grapes?). The Confederation of African Football (CAF) investigated and The Gambia’s under-17 was cleared of alleged age cheating.

TK, there are lots of Nigerians with good image. Most of them are generous. They like sharing fortunes with people they don’t even know. Here is one of the emails I got from a very, very generous “Nigerian”:

ATTN: XXX
FROM: DR. DRISS GOMEZ
DATE: 25 September 2009.

DEAR FRIEND,

HOW ARE YOU TODAY, HOPE YOU ARE DOING WONDERFULLY WELL? PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT YOU AND YOUR COMPANY WAS RECOMMENDED TO ME BECAUSE YOU HAPPEN TO BE A TRUST WORTHY FELLOW. I GOT YOUR CONTACT INFO FROM A FRIEND OF MINE(THE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS OF MY COUNTRY, BUT I DID NOT LET HIM KNOW THE TRUE NATURE OF BUSINESS I INTEND TO CARRY OUT WITH YOU. SO PLEASE ENDEAVOUR TO SEND THE REQUESTED INFOS SO THAT I CAN QUICKLY FILE IN A FORMAL APPLICATION FOR THE RELEASE AND ONWARD REMITTANCE OF THE MONEY TO YOUR ACCOUNT VIA TELEGRAPHIC TRANSFER(T.T.)SINCE TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE IN THIS DEAL. AWAITING YOUR IMMEDIATE RESPONSE.

BEST REGARDS,

DR. DRISS GOMEZ.

How I wish that all people in the world were as generous as Dr. Driss Gomez. I replied to his email and kindly requested him to donate the money to a charitable organization of his choice.

By TK | September 26th, 2009 at 12:47 pm

Sscouser,

I am sure Onyungo took his position as a patriot of Nigeria.I have taken mine as a patriot Malawian.However,its not right for Onyungo to be vitrolic to Malawians to the extent that we are giving them a bad image as if their image is squeaky clean.Am sure there are very many nice Nigerians but on the contrary there are also alot of bad ones too.Malawians will not be the first nor the last to give Nigerians a bad name.You rip what you sow and now the chickens are coming home to roost……Thats why Nigerians are famous for all the wrong reasons.I could go on and on explaining how they use Malawi passports and give a bad name to my beloved country.

By Danitso | September 26th, 2009 at 3:02 pm

sscouser, thanks for the link. I read all the letters. My conclusion is that they are educated crooks.

By Danitso | September 26th, 2009 at 3:12 pm

How did Onyungo come across Nyasa Times? He must be one of those Nigerians with fake MALAWI passports.

By Ogubwefu | September 27th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

Age cheating in football is a global phenomenon. Every country cheats, but it is just that the stigma is more pronounced in Africa because of our retarded physique.

In Europe and the Americas, the players are well fed and stoutly built, but because of the malnutrition in Africa, the players look sickly and small. And to cover this deficiency, Africans tend to look for huge players to match their counterparts from Europe and the Americas.

By TK | September 27th, 2009 at 9:58 pm

Sscouser

Need I mention that even here in America Nigerians have messed it up for all Africans.The first question am asked everytime I talk to any American is “Are you Nigerian?”if the answer is “yes”then they will have no business to deal with you.There was a whole documentary on ABC about crooked dealing of Nigerians.Watch You Tube 60 Minutes and tell me what you think.I think your post in their defense is so naive and considering that you are on neutral ground you should have maintained your status quo instead of siding with them.Onyugo accused Malawi people of giving a bad name and I haven’t heard you say anything to that effect.Even though you are not one of us atleast have the decency to correct things when they go wrong considering that you blog about my beautiful country.Otherwise you might want to consider looking for another team to write about.I am a staunch Chelsea fan and will not stand idle and watch my team be vilified nor people associated with it.I respect people who are going to post their comments strictly based on sports and not trying to find their way to advance their political ideology.

By Tee | September 27th, 2009 at 11:11 pm

Sscouser

By sscouser | September 28th, 2009 at 9:21 am

TK/Tee, I don’t even know where to start.

“I think your post in their defense is so naive and considering that you are on neutral ground you should have maintained your status quo instead of siding with them.”

Because I said they are generous? Did I really mean that they are generous or was that with a tongue in the cheek? How can somebody be generous when he wants to rip you off? I even gave a link of Nigerian Scams. How could I do that if I am siding with them? Your allegations that I am siding with Nigerians on this issue are beyond my comprehension.

“Onyungo accused Malawi people of giving a bad name and I haven’t heard you say anything to that effect.”

This is a sports blog. I didn’t want to waste my time talking about the movie. After all, you had already told Onyungo: “The story above is not related to what you are talking about. Please go back to Nyasa Times and post your comment am sure there are so many Malawians eager to answer that.” I could have deleted Onyungo’s comment but the time I read his comment you had already replied to his comment. Also, didn’t I say: “don’t shoot the messenger”? That also applied to the movie. The Malawian is in the movie just as an actor and not producer/writer. The Nigerians should have beef with the producer/writer and not the actors.

“Even though you are not one of us at least have the decency to correct things when they go wrong considering that you blog about my beautiful country”

I am not Malawian just because I said: “just because I blog about Malawi National Teams doesn’t make me Malawian”? The correct way of correcting things was just to delete his comment. Again, I couldn’t delete his comment because you had already replied to his comment. If I had to delete his comment then I had to delete yours also.

“Otherwise you might want to consider looking for another team to write about”

I just do this to pass time. If you want to take over I am more than willing to hand it over to you.

“I am a staunch Chelsea fan and will not stand idle and watch my team be vilified nor people associated with it.”

Because I asked “How old is Chelsea’s Mikel Obi”? Isn’t Mikel Obi Nigerian? I have been accused of siding with Nigerians so how can I vilify the people I am siding with?

“I respect people who are going to post their comments strictly based on sports and not trying to find their way to advance their political ideology.”

????

Peace!

sscouser
sscouser@gmail.com

Posted from United States

By sscouser | September 28th, 2009 at 10:49 am

Ogubwefu? Seems to be a Nigerian name but that doesn’t make you Nigerian so I will not assume. Every country cheats? I don’t think so. Anyway, just because every country cheats doesn’t make it right.

It’s news to me that malnutrition is everywhere in Africa and nowhere outside Africa. All African players look sickly and small? All players in “Europe and Americas” look big? Is Landon Donavan bigger and taller than most African players?

Please don’t draw a conclusion or generalization based on only a few instances of a phenomenon.

“A United States Judge indulged in a very hasty generalization when in the recent trial of an alimony case he interjected the remark that ‘any man who gives all his salary to his wife is a fool.’ Many men not fools, but wise and prudent, turn over their earnings to their wives as the most competent stewards of the household.”
(”The Wife As the Family Treasurer,” The Toronto Truth, July 29, 1895)

Posted from United States

By Tk | September 28th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

Sscouser

Point taken my friend.I guess my mind was so fixated on Onyugo.We can go back to sports now.

By sscouser | September 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm

Beef squashed. Now let’s get back to sports. Since you are a Chelsea fan here is what Blue Champion wrote about the loss (Wigan 3 Chelsea 1):

“……The red card did have a huge impact on the match. To play an away match with 10 players for 40 minutes is quite difficult. And if that missing man is Petr Cech, you’re going to be concerned. There are some discussions over the red card and the penalty. I think it was a penalty surely but to give a straight red was a bit tough on he keeper. Anyway, I have zero faith on Phil Dowd as a referee. He looks like a bloody egoist who loves to make controversial decisions so he can read his name in the newspapers the next day…………..

Let’s cheer the boys, after all, it’s not very often that they lose or concede three goals. And even those teams that lose and concede goals on a regular basis get cheered by their fans. Next week, Liverpool visit Stamford Bridge. The timing of this defeat might just be helpful. Look at John Terry applauding the visiting fans, you can see how disappointed he is. Now the blues are a pack of wounded animals. Liverpool, coming from a comfortable one-sided win, must face the wrath of Chelsea, who were humbled by a bottom half team. It’s going to be a great match next week. If Chelsea beat Liverpool, all will be forgotten. Bring back, Joe Cole, the Liverpool-slayer! It’s bounce-back time!”

Zabwino zonse (All the best) against the scousers.

Posted from United States

By Tk | September 28th, 2009 at 9:44 pm

I did not watch the game but given what I have read,the refs decision can really affect the outcome of the game and probably did this one.This is evedent in Basketball,soccer,football etc.Such kind of refs who make controversial decisions should be investigated and terminated forthwith.Chelsea will go ahead and win against liverpool by 2 goals to nil.Thats my prediction.

By sscouser | September 29th, 2009 at 10:26 am

Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti:

“It was a bad display. I don’t know why we didn’t play well but these things can happen after many wins.

“Wigan played better than us. They were well organised and played well. This was the right result.

“We played well in the first 10 minutes but when we lost the first goal it became more complicated.”

You are as entitled to your prediction just as Lawro is entitled to his. However, 2-0 without your best keeper? Lawro reserves the right to revise his predictions based on any late team news.

Posted from United States

By MM | September 30th, 2009 at 7:30 am

I thot I was the only Malawian Chelsea fan.

By Orufuo | November 4th, 2009 at 11:48 am

I am Nigerian and I believe cheating is inexcusable. The funny thing is that countries that cheat only succeed in stunting their own development. Because then they don’t start their youth development programmes early and by the time their ‘youthful’ players are ready for the senior team, they are past their prime. Age-cheating is rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa and MRI tests may just be the best thing that happened to football on the continent. Even then I am certain there are still many cheats out there.
Saddening.

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