Cameroon Ejected 32 Players for Failing Age Tests for a Soccer Tournament
It’s been a problem for the ages but Cameroonian soccer great Samuel Eto’o appears determined to stamp it out.
Cameroon sealed its qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations’ Under-17s tournament with a 2-0 win against the Republic of Congo 2-0 on January 15, but the squad which won that match was unrecognizable from the one initially selected for the event.
That’s because 21 players of the 30-man original group were disqualified for failing age eligibility tests following MRI scans to determine bone age and then ejected from the team, according to BBC Sport.
To make matters worse, 11 of the replacements drafted into the squad also failed tests and were too old to play in the qualifiers.
The ejection of those players followed Cameroon Football Association (FECAFOOT) President Eto’o’s decision to test players ahead of the competition.
“These players rely on football and most of them come from poor families and backgrounds,” Cameroonian journalist Giovanni Wanneh told CNN Sports, explaining why the players involved would have attempted to falsify their ages.
“They want to reduce their ages so they can get to play for longer periods and make more money.”
‘I was Hungry’
Issues around age-verification are not new to the football world.
Sir Alf Ramsey, the manager who led England to its solitary World Cup title in 1966 changed his date of birth. According to the Morning Star, it was so that he could get a professional contract as a player after World War II.
Brazilian Carlos Alberto was 25 when he won the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship with Brazil, a tournament for players under the age of 20.
According to ESPN, the player admitted in a television interview that he had reduced his age because, “It was a chance for me to make a living … I was hungry.”
However, the issue of a player’s age remains particularly prevalent in certain countries like Cameroon and its neighbors.
Famously, former Newcastle United and current Marseille and DRC defender Chancel Mbemba was probed by world governing body FIFA for allegedly having four different birthdays.
In an interview with The Mirror he claimed to take bone tests to verify his own age and was eventually ruled to be born on the day that he claimed by FIFA’s disciplinary committee.
Ghana and Nigeria, who have seven FIFA Under-17 World Cup titles between them, have come under scrutiny for the ages of their cup winning teams.
Some observers question the success that the teams have enjoyed at a youth level, but has not been replicated at international soccer’s senior level.
“I’m sorry to say this in the past we have got coaches trying to play for the podium instead of thinking about the whole idea of having a U-17 or U-19 as a developmental squad,” Gomezgani Zakazaka, head of competitions and communications at the Malawi Federation, told CNN Sport.
“I mean we have been stars of U-17, World Cups. But what happens after that? How do we take our success at the U-17 up to the national team? These are questions that we should be asking ourselves as Africa,” added Zakazaka.
Ivorian journalist Mamadou Gaye goes further, telling CNN Sports: “I’d even say that it would be fair enough for Africa to return all those trophies to FIFA [the seven U-17 titles won by Nigeria and Ghana], because it’s obvious and very clear that it was won through cheating.”
Why Does Age ‘Cheating’ Happen?
Africa’s love affair with soccer is no secret.
At Qatar 2022, fans from Morocco and Tunisia made every game feel like it was in Casablanca or Tunis. Fans from Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal, though outnumbered at every match, also brought a color and noise unmatched by nearly any other nation at the tournament.
However, unlike rival countries in Europe and South America, the majority of African nations do not have the talent pipelines and organizational structure to develop all those youngsters vying to become the next Sadio Mane or Mohamed Salah.
A sport usually idealized for its meritocratic values often becomes a matter of luck in Africa, where players must take chances that are few and far between if they are to carve out a professional career.
This lack of opportunity, coupled with a lack of social mobility, means that many young children and their families believe soccer can be a ticket out of poverty.
That desperation and lack of opportunity is a breeding ground for players to be taken advantage of, be it by coaches, administrators, agents, and even parents looking to cash in on a child’s talent.
It’s even harder in a country like Cameroon, where a career in domestic soccer doesn’t deliver a reliable source of income, something Eto’o is trying to change by introducing a minimum wage for players playing in domestic leagues.
The post Cameroon Ejected 32 Players for Failing Age Tests for a Soccer Tournament was originally published on CNN.
