Turning back the years

It has been many years since the ‘age-cheating’ issue has made a great debate. There’s no doubt that age cheating has a damaging effect on the development of our sports in general.

The Nike Soccer Tournament for under-15s, played in Soweto in 2008, was a farce. Some teams decided to pull out of the competition when they became suspicious that others had used overage players.

Even the sponsors threatened to pull out of the competition if age cheating is not properly addressed. Seemingly this did not set any alarms to most PSL teams.

Some of the teams’ developments are still with a cloud hanging over them with regard to this particular issue. The Orange Mabingwa Under-13 Football Challenge, as the tournament has been dubbed, was rocked by the same age-cheating fiasco that has bedeviled most of youth championships in Africa. Recently Kaizer Chiefs decided to close down their entire development programme.

"I must warn that the problem is not subjectively a Kaizer Chiefs misfortune, but investigating much deeper will surely expose other related similarities. Our internal enquiry has thus kicked in to prepare the authentic re-establishment of our youth programme obviously with fresh and honest parents and young lads whose future may be secured by the professional management of our youth programmes,” Said Kaizer Chiefs CEO Kaizer Motaung to Kaizer Chiefs Website.

Legitimate young players from European and American countries continue to serve their countries for years, getting better as they advance in their careers. The question is why most African players drop out of reckoning early than their European players of the same age?

Most of the blames should be directed to parents and coaches who, perhaps out of desperation for a better life for themselves and their children, or a desire to benefit their clubs, employ unscrupulous means for players to succeed, especially when there are financial rewards for the clubs. Poverty, limited life chances and the desire to win at all costs are named as contributing factor to this, now regarded as an epidemic in football in Africa.

If we continue hiding under the fact of saying African continent is poor, then lets forget being a football continent. That thought should be completely erased in our mind. It will take thousands more years for an African country to win the World Cup or any major senior trophies.

Greed and ignorance is the major issue here. Blame should be put on coaches, parents, clubs, schools and the sport's national controlling body, which, all contribute to the growing malaise by either encouraging it or turning a blind eye.

Verification of birth certificates as the only proof of a player’s age cannot be enough. In the quest to justify their places and earn personal glory, sports officials of states, sometimes with the various state governors fully in the picture, often went out on a poaching binge few months to the biannual Sports Festivals to increase their chances of either winning or coming top of the winners’ table.

In South Africa, some schools has this frequent penchant for fielding people who are well over the age bracket for winning sports competitions. Using the younger sibling’s birth certificates or even borrowing from other young relatives has been common practice encouraged in some local schools. Hence often later, some players in the local premier league tend to change their ‘surnames’ or even ‘names’ through their football careers.

There are numerous ways to ensure this issue is sorted. Various methods need to be instilled to put a stop and lock-up all the perpetrators. In the presence of the lawyers as well as agent, clubs must ensure that a declaration form needs to be signed before signing a player. Some have suggested that schools or pre-school teacher(s) need to be called for verification.

While others say parents should also sign a declaration form. Also alert them that should it emerge any complications regarding the player’s age later, a case of fraud will be opened against the player. That means this issue should be made a legal matter as soon as possible. Players, agents, coaches, club owners should be alerted of this potential repercussion. Turning back the years in sport is fraud…

By Pshasha Seakamela