THE AGE CHEATING EPIDEMIC, A PLUS TO THE GAME OR A BUG THAT NEEDS DISINFECTING

THE AGE CHEATING EPIDEMIC, A PLUS TO THE GAME OR A BUG THAT NEEDS DISINFECTING

“He joined us saying he was 28. We only later found out he was 40.” these are the exact words of the former FK Partizan president, Zarko Zecevic on renowned Nigeria defender Taribo West.

West joined the club somewhere in 2002 and would go on to play till late 2004 before departing to Al Arabi Doha in Qatar.

West would go on to represent other clubs bringing a career that started in 1991 to an end in 2008.

Not much was said about the success he chalked in the game during his playing days, and even after his retirement from football, one question still lingers on in the minds of his former employers and most people.... Did he age-cheat???

This has been the question asked of many African stars and few from Asia and South America especially after excelling at a youthful age..

Age cheating has burgeoned to a level that it has become a mainstay even in the female football sector...

WHAT THEN IS AGE CHEATING; IN ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL..

Age fraud is a term for age fabrication or the use of false documentation to gain an advantage over opponents.

In football, it is common amongst players belonging to nations where records are not easily verifiable.

The media often refer to the player with false documentation as an "age-cheat" and these players normally use age-cheating to their advantage during juvenile tournaments.

AGE-CHEATING A MYTH OR ACTUALITY

Whoever would deny that age-cheating is just a myth is telling a whopper.

It really does exist and it’s much more rife in our part of the world.

Former Nigeria international Jonathan Akpoborie, in an interview with the BBC confirmed age fraud is "rampant" in African football and describes it as the "biggest problem" the game faces there.

Akpoborie, who now works as an agent, admits he knows of many players who "lied" about their age in African football.

He told BBC Sport: "It has been a big problem and still is. Some of them played at the Under-17 level and then a few years later retire because they can't run any more.

"When you look at the African players playing for the Under-17s, maybe one or two years later they have retired because they can't produce what they produced at Under-17 level because they are so old. The wrong players are being given the platform."

Players lying about their age in world football, is a problem the authorities have been laboring to get to grips with for a long time.

Former Ghana FA Chairman, Ben Koufie, in 2012 is quoted in an interview as saying: "The problem has been bad for a long time but it is changing for the better.

"It is quite common, in certain cases, when you ask a player about his age, he will ask if you are asking about his football age or his actual age."

SO WHY AGE-CHEAT???

This question has long been a difficult conundrum for many football punditry or experts but normally same reasons have been produced.

Some football administrators who either through improper planning or even lack of planning for the long term push in adults to play juvenile tournaments to give them the advantage of winning....

They do these for reasons best known to them and which mostly is political.

They engage in what I term as ’droll’ acts to achieve quick results to aid their quest to enrich their profiles to garner more votes in their favour during elections.

Some few ones who have stood firm in fighting such corrupt practices have been forced to leave their post.

In late 1999, Anthony Kojo Williams was appointed as head of the Nigeria Football Federation. He lasted less than three months in the job and was dismissed because; in NFF board member Zaria Sani's words "he failed to carry the other board members along".

In a 2010 interview, Williams stated that the Nigerian Government were "afraid of change".

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 [corruption] is getting deeper and deeper and deeper.

From time to time we get flashes where we do well in some competition with overage players and we celebrate. That was one of the issues I looked at, we can't keep using overage players. We use over-age players for junior championships, I know that. Why not say it? It's the truth. We always cheat. It's a fact. When you cheat, you deprive the young stars that are supposed to play in these competitions their rights."

The football administrators saddle their coaches with the burden to deliver and the coaches in turn believe they can cut every corner possible to get a result.

On a broader context, another leading cause is the high unemployment rate in this part of our world.

These kind of environments makes aspiring players consider football as their only source of livelihood and will jump at the slighted opportunity to move out to even a non-footballing nation. 

Some sacrifices they make to convince scouts and footie agents include telling a lie about their age.

If one tries to be firm in refusing age-cheats such opportunities, their family members will throng the offices of such people to either plead or threaten them for their refusal.

Another cause of age cheating can be linked to illiteracy, Former Ghana FA Chairman, Ben Koufie some time past when quizzed about Ghana's Under-17 World Cup win in 1991, admitted some of the players did not even know their real age.

He confirmed in an interview with the BBC world service: "In Africa, many people don't know when they were born. Sometimes they guess. It is true we have problems in Africa, that is why we have a doubt about it, whether it is genuine cheating or not."

Barely do our footballers get formal education and that's why it is necessary we stick to that books and boots project which was launched by OXIGEN  with support from the  Ghana Football Association and other corporate bodies.

SO WHAT EFFECTS DOES AGE CHEATING HAVE ON THE GAME...

The player fails to develop further than he did in the juvenile tournaments.

It’s that simple.

It has always been said that after winning the golden ball award in the 1991 FIFA U-17 world cup, he was touted by Pele himself as his successor.

Several reasons have however been given for his failure to accomplish that landmark.

We've had several talents announce their arrival on the football scene after excelling marvelously in juvenile tournaments but failed to glitter further afterwards.

Though there are several factors leading to their failure to attain their expected level the main point that has dominated is age falsification.

Chrisantus Macauley, after the 2007 U-17 tourney in South Korea emerged top scorer with 7 goals was linked to several big clubs involving the 2 Manchester Clubs (City and United), Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, Ajax, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid.

All these clubs were in a scramble for his signature but eventually he ended up with Hamburg.

Instead of progressing further, his prospects has extinguished  with a new window of opportunity presenting itself as he signed  a  3 year deal with Sivaspor in Turkey in July this year.

Before that he had endured a torrid 2 year stint with Las Palmas a Spanish Segunda(second) division side.

Drawing a brief comparison with the best player of that same tournament, Toni Kroos, Macauley comes nowhere near the German.

Kroos-some months older than the registered age of Chrisantus-after the tournament has gradually grown to become one of the world's best midfielders currently.

Such comparisons can be made of Alessandro del Pierro and Nii Odartey Lamptey in 1991.

Emmanuel Duah, Wilson Oruma, Nwanko Kanu and Francesco Totti in 1993, Awudu Issaka and Esteban Cambiasso in 1995, Ronaldinho and Godwin Attram/Owusu Afriyie in 1997.

The list could go on and on and the answer is, unlike their foreign peers, our local heroes mysteriously vanished from the scene.

Many of these players even retired from the game at a time when they were more than expected to just keep on playing.

And most of them retire due to nature giving them a taste of their own medicine.

Some got injured and were treated with the wrong medication and enrolled on the wrong recovery program due to their accurate ages not being known.

Another thing bad about age-cheating is the shame it brings to the player after being caught and the other related sanctions.

Former Zimbabwe player Newton Ben Katanha was once caught out and banned by Uefa over issues of age after his club had raised issues over a non-healing injury.

Tobie Mombie and Chancel Mbemba Mangulu all had several birth certificates and were subjects of ridicule by the media, and other football followers Anthe world at large.

Lazio keep on defending the actual age of Joseph Minala thinking the world is in a state of oblivion.

The earlier they know the truth the earlier the world would stop making them an object of mockery for having faith in someone who just by having a look at his half naked picture will give you the evidence you need to prove he is way above 17 years.

The one bad thing about age cheating is it denies the young talents the opportunity to showcase their God-given talents.

Most young and talented players but with diminutive features have been refused the opportunity to play for respective junior national teams.

They have been pigeonholed while bulky and overage ones have without difficulty made the cut.

These ones after making promising performances then fail to flourish when they make the progression to the respective senior sides.

SO THE QUESTION IS WHAT CAN BE MADE TO BRING AN END TO THIS EPIDEMIC.

The fact is despite FIFA in its own way has put in an effort to minimise little has been done in terms of changing general attitudes, the cultural perception of cheating players or the consequences for youth football development.

The introduction of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan has in some way contributed to battling age cheating.

It was first introduced by Fifa in 2009 for the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria to help work out whether players were over age or not.

They had been researching its use from 2003 and results from Under-17 World Cups in 2003, 2005 and 2007 revealed up to 35% of players were over age.

MRI is used to scan the left wrist of players to accurately find their true age.

In April 2013, nine players were excluded from the African Under-17 Championship in Morocco after MRI wrist scans showed them to be over the age limit.

Congo-Brazzaville, Ivory Coast and Nigeria each had three players banned.

Later that year, Nigeria lost several key players for the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in October for the same reason, while Somalia were expelled from qualifying for the 2013 African Under-17 championship for fielding over-age players.

But it has its own lapses as it is not 100% effective.

The system can only be used effectively at the U-17 level which means age cheating at the U-20 level is out of the picture.

Therefore it is clear that tackling the epidemic of age cheating among African footballers should go beyond effective MRI testing.

It should rather address the drastic overhaul of both cultural and football setups.

The problem lies with our various colts football setup.

Starting from there is a unique way of stamping out age-cheating from the system.

Many colts clubs have their U-12 set-ups stocked with players between 15 and 18 years.

Some U-17 sides have between 18 years to even 27 year olds playing.

Our various school competitions have also seen senior students in the Junior High School level representing the young primary students in football competitions.

Almost all the football academies don't have any better system for checking the ages of players they want to register.

We must therefore correct our attitude in this aspect. It is key to battling the problem.

More so, developing a long term football policy for our grassroots is ideal for stamping out the problem.

Our football administrators must establish long term policies and strictly stick to it.

There must also be the provision of immense funds towards youth programmes such as academies across the continent.

Ownership should be firm in maintaining such principles for setting them up and the coaching roles should be given to qualified coaches who would dedicate their time to coaching and developing players in schools, nurturing them over a well-structured developmental plan from maybe 11- 21 years.

There must also be a similar setup by the local clubs and the Football Associations must make this a mandatory requirement.

There must also be tougher sanctions to all who refuse to abide by it with the ultimate being expulsion.

We must also fully endorse the idea of the book and boots policy so as to improve the literacy rate of our footballers. This goes a long way to improve their awareness on the dangers of involving themselves with such acts.

Good records-keeping should also be encouraged at various organisations such as hospitals, schools, national registries etc.

Our win-at-all cost mentality, where both coaches and players at youth level are pressured into selecting personnel for victory alone, rather than for the purpose of player development must also be rubbished.

The original idea for instituting the competition during the late Joao Havelange era was to develop young talents and give them that exposure at the international level.

We must embrace this idea and use the competition for its intended purpose.

Although it looks highly onerous, together we can kick age-cheating from our football someday, sometime but we must start now.