In December 2010, the Senegal Football Federation withdrew Diawandou Diagne, Hervé Diédhiou and Samba Diallo from their under-17 national team after it was found they were overage following an MRI scan. He had what he considered to be proof that some players were overage but the NFF were not interested in taking his complaint seriously. In 2009, Nigerian journalist Adokiye Amiesimaka accused the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) of being complicit with age-cheats because it gave the nation a competitive advantage. The same year, Ghana's Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Joe Aggrey said he wished to stop age cheats. In 2003, Kenya's Under-17 national team were dissolved by the Kenyan Government after some players revealed themselves to be over 18 years of age. We always cheat.Īnthony Kojo Williams, NFF Chairman, 1999-2000. We use over-age players for junior championships, I know that. When you cheat, you deprive the young stars that are supposed to play in these competitions their rights." That was one of the issues I looked at, we can't keep using overage players. From time to time we get flashes where we do well in some competition with overage players and we celebrate. He went on to say, "I don't see Nigerian football getting out of the quagmire, the problem it is in today is because it is getting deeper and deeper and deeper. In the 2010 BBC World service documentary Africa Kicks, Williams stated that the Nigerian Government were "afraid of change". He lasted less than three months in the job and was dismissed because, in NFF board member Zaria Sani's words "he has failed to carry the other board members along". In late 1999, Anthony Kojo Williams was appointed as head of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Kwenaite also claims that he was told that he was "unpatriotic" for reporting the story. After revealing the age of the player, the player's father took Kwenaite to the South African press ombudsman for "slander" before withdrawing his complaint after it was found that school records show that the player would have started school aged 2 years old. The captain of that side was a 24-year-old third-year University student from Port Elizabeth. South African journalist Thomas Kwenaite uncovered several "age-cheats" representing South Africa who participated in an Under-15 age group tournament hosted in France. The resulting ban lasted for two years and Nigeria was also stripped of its right to host the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship. The birth dates of three players at the 1988 Olympics were different than the ones used by those players at previous tournaments.
In 1989 Nigeria's youth national teams were banned by FIFA for fielding over-age players in FIFA-organised youth tournaments. One of the best known examples of a player falsifying documentations is Cameroon's international football defender Tobie Mimboe who held several documents during the course of his career that indicated he became younger as time went by. In some cases, it is possible for the player not to know their own date of birth and make an approximate guess when it comes to gaining official documents. FIFA says that "over-age players have been wrongly entered into various youth competitions, often benefiting from an unfair advantage due to their greater physical maturity compared to players of the proper age." The players know that there is a lesser chance of being signed if they are, for example, 23 years old as opposed to 17 years old as there would be less time for the club to develop the player.Īge fabrication also allows an older player to enter in youth competitions. European scouts are looking for young talented players from poorer countries to sign for a European club. There are several reasons why players choose to use false documentation. The media often refer to the player with false documentation as an "age-cheat". In football, it is common amongst players belonging to nations where records are not easily verifiable. Age fraud is age fabrication or the use of false documentation to gain an advantage over opponents.
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