By Buba Gagigo
The WAFU Executive has disqualified the Gambia’s Under-17 team [Baby Scorpions] from the ongoing tournament in Senegal.
The WAFU Executive’s move is as a result of what it described as ‘age cheating’.
“The Gambia Football Federation [GFF] regrets to inform its stakeholders, and the general public that it’s delegation at WAFU Under-17 championship in Senegal today, received a letter from the WAFU Executive Director that CAF has disqualified the Gambia Under-17 team, because some player(s) failed the competition MRI Test, without specifying the names of number of players,” GFF posted on its Facebook page.
However, the GFF insists that all its players in the competition were tested by the CAF medical personal and they have all passed the test.
“The GFF is protesting/appealing against the decision and the general public will be informed accordingly,” the federation concluded
The mandatory use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was introduced by the world football governing body [FIFA] in 2009 for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. It’s meant to help ascertain whether players are over age or not. MRI is considered to be 99% accurate, until the age of 17, after which it becomes harder for medical professionals to calculate a person’s age.