The football fraternity in Ghana received a rather embarrassing moment few weeks ago when the U-17 team, the Black Starlet were disqualified from taking part in the next edition of the U-17 Africa tournament.

This became necessary when Cameroun protested, saying Ghana presented over age players. CAF, the governing body of football on the continent after much investigation, sanctioned Ghana.

This development has cast an indelible dent on the image of the country. The truth of the matter is, the Cameroonians are themselves culpable of the very accusation they accused Ghana of since none of their players is truly U-17 in my estimation. It is palpable their age rate is marginal and that is why they have been able to outsmart the Ghanaians.

Ghana and Nigeria boast of an enviable record of six world cup trophies between them in the under seventeen level. Ghana has gone further to break a long time jinx by winning the U-20 world cup in Egypt in 2009, a feat that has never be done before by any African side. Yes, such is the staggering record between the two powerhouses of Africa football. They have help registered a good impression about Africa’s prowess in football to the rest of the world but I dare say with much authority that Africa has done this in a dubious way, defeating the objective for which FIFA introduced this scheme 1985.

Non African participants of youth tournaments have impetuously protested about the blatant age-cheating of Africans especially Ghana and Nigeria. In Africa, our diet is heavily laden with carbohydrates so lots of people have stunted growth. Their stature and age doesn’t match hence it becomes so easy for them to infiltrate tournaments with over-age players as opposed to the whites who are very tall and “big” but  are actually young.

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