MRI to root out age-cheats

AFC – ZIBO, The Organising Committee for AFC Youth Competitions, in its sixth meeting, has expressed its delight with Zibo’s successful hosting of the AFC U-19 Championship 2010.

The Committee Chairman, Japan’s Junji Ogura was very happy to see a smoothly run competition, held for the first time in the birth-place of football.

“I must thank the Zibo City Government, the Local Organising Committee and China Football Association. This success won’t be happen without their help and effort,” said Ogura, who is also an AFC Executive Committee member and Japan Football Association President.

AFC President Mohamed Bin Hammam agreed with the chairman’s compliment on the host.

“I seldom see a tournament conducted without any hiccups like here. The organisers are well prepared and everready. They make our stay here very comfortable and everyone, not just the AFC delegation, but also the team officials and players, feel like home in Zibo,” he said.

Bin Hammam also pointed out the importance of youth football and feels that the committee can play a bigger role in the development of grassroots and youth football.
“Organising competitions is one part but how to reach the higher level is another and this committee should be in-charge of grassroots development. We should adopt and streamline certain policies which will help our grassroots and youth development programmes.

“In China only, there are more than 600 schools participating in the Vision Asia project. AFC is determined to develop grassroots and youth competitions in the continent. We have AFC U-13 and U-14 Football Festivals for boys and girls in alternate years and school leagues in Vision Asia project city are developing well too.

“The future of Asia’s football is youth,” he said.

The Committee also decided to stick to the current Regulations to implement accurate MRI test and prevent teams from playing with any over-aged player for the AFC U-16 Championship.

AFC has sent a clear message towards age bandits by disqualifying three teams from the AFC U-16 Championship 2008, preceded by a ban of two years on 16 players in the year 2000 and eight in the 2010 edition of this event.

AFC introduced age detection methods in its age group competitions since the year of 2000.

First it was an X-ray and now the introduction of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to determine the accurate age of players has helped AFC to clamp down on this scourge.
Iraq, Tajikistan and DPR Korea lost their places in the continental event in 2008 despite making it from the qualifiers because they fielded overage players while Yemen’s dream of being part of FIFA U-17 World Cup 2009 in Nigeria was shattered after an MRI on their player Wesam Saleh Ahmed Al Worafi concurred that he was over the age of 16 years.

Following an X-ray examination, 16 players from four countries (Iran – 5, Oman – 6, Thailand – 2 and Bangladesh – 3) were banned from internationalfootball for two years and the teams involved, as well as Nepal, were banned from the 2002 edition of the competition for fielding overage
players in 2000 AFC U-16 Championship.

Eight players from Pakistan and four from Yemen were found out to be overage in the 2002 edition.

Bin Hammam called for an end to overage players and believes the application of science will play its part in ensuring “honour” remains at age group level.

“Those member associations who field overage players do not care about the preparation of the team as they only want to bring in players that would help them win or at least not lose too badly.

“In sport we have to compete with honour and we must respect ourselves.With the support of FIFA, we have introduced the MRI test to prove the age of players,” he said. “We cannot accept any more cases of overage players in Under 19, Under 16 or other competitions and the MRI scan is our solution.”

In the same meeting, it was also decided that for the AFC U-16 and U-19 Championship 2012 qualifiers, all visiting teams need to pay USD 20,000 each to cover part of host’s organisational costs while the host countries
 will pay the rest of the cost. AFC will bear the cost of all AFC officials.

In addition, regulations for the AFC U-16 and U-19 Championship 2012 qualifiers have been approved.

All decisions, however, will have to be ratified by the AFC Executive Committee in its next meeting in November.