Fresh age fraud scandal rocks Cameroon as 21 U-17 footballers get disqualified

Cameroon soccer was within the eye of controversy when 21 members of their Under-17 squad have been disqualified over age fraud, as reported by the Daily Mail.

After MRI exams, nearly all of gamers chosen for this yr’s UNIFACC match have been disqualified as they did not clear them. The exams are used to find out a participant’s age by scanning their wrists and measuring bone progress, the Daily Mail report acknowledged.

A Cameroon assertion learn, ‘The Cameroonian Football Federation informs public opinion that as a part of the preparations for the UNIFFAC Limbe 2023 match, qualifying for the following African U17 Nations Championship, 21 gamers out of the 30 presently on coaching have failed on the consequence of the MRI exams. They have been instantly faraway from the group. Steps have been instantly taken for his or her substitute.

‘This action is the result of strict instructions given by the President of FECAFOOT acting under the mandate of the COMEX, in order to put an end to the tampering with civil status records which have, in the past, tarnished the image of the apex body of the Cameroon football. FECAFOOT urges all actors, in particular educators, to ensure that the ages by category are respected,’ it added.

The African nations have at all times had their fair proportion of controversy relating to the authenticity their gamers’ ages with many allegations pointing in the direction of their success at junior stage worldwide tournaments, saying that they’d fielded over-age gamers. In 1989, FIFA had banned Nigeria after it got here to mild that the delivery dates of three of their gamers within the 1988 Olympics have been completely different from ones utilized by the identical gamers in earlier tournaments whereas in 2019, Equatorial Guinea have been disqualified from the Under-17 World Cup after two of their gamers have been discovered to have been age-cheating.