Age cheating: A reality check long overdue

Ghanaian football fans were hit with the shocking news this week that the Confederation of African Football (CAF) had banned Ghana’s Black Starlets from participating in next year’s African Under-17 Championship in Niger after two Starlets players reportedly failed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests to ascertain their true ages.

A CAF report to the GFA indicated that analysis of the MRI tests by CAF’s medical experts contradicted a report presented by Ghana on the players. 

Since the report was made public, the GFA has vowed to challenge CAF’s findings by appealing against the ruling in a bid to have the Starlets reinstated.

While the ruling may embarrass the FA and Ghanaians in general, it comes as little surprise to ardent followers of the game who have often viewed the ages of some players in such age-group competitions with suspicion and tasked the football authorities to clean up the system to ensure integrity and fair play.

The latest sanction blew up in our faces in the most embarrassing manner at a time Ghanaians are still smarting from a disastrous World Cup campaign in Brazil which compelled President John Dramani Mahama to set up a commission of inquiry into the Brazil debacle and other related matters.

Suspicion of age cheating, especially by African teams, has always been rife since Nigeria and Ghana began to dominate the FIFA age-group competitions in the mid-1980s and CAF’s decision to use MRI testing to verify the ages of players in its competition was the boldest attempt yet to bring integrity into the game.

Meanwhile, Ghanaian football officials have always gloated in our successes at the youth level and played down the possibility of one or two players being overage. 

While the rather mature looks of some players may be deceptive, the so-called “football age” has become part of our lexicon since Ghana first participated in the 1989 FIFA/Kodak Under-17 championship in Scotland where suspicion was raised over the stated ages of some Starlets players.

When Ben Koufie took over the GFA over a decade ago, he took a personal interest in ensuring that players within the right age bracket were selected to represent Ghana, with a view to managing their development to the senior team. 

In fact, his successor, Dr Nyaho Nyaho-Tamakloe, has, on many occasions, raised doubt over the stated ages of Ghanaian players who hit the limelight early in their careers but surprisingly fade out at a time their contemporaries have reached their peak.

And while Ghana seems to have managed the development and transition of players through the various age groups, a recent protest by Cameroun over the eligibility of seven players Ghana fielded against them, which triggered CAF’s scrutiny and subsequent disqualification, provided ample evidence that a lot more work needs to be done by all involved in football administration to eliminate age cheating by players, often done in connivance with their clubs, parents and managers, in order to bring integrity into the game.