In African football, there have been instances of players falsifying their ages. Cameroonian soccer legend Idouo vowed to eradicate this vice when he became president of the FA a year ago. However, a recent incident involving Cameroon's U17 national team has sparked off another furor. On the eve of preparations for a Central African regional tournament, 30 of the team's players underwent MRI age tests and shockingly, 21 of them failed, a staggeringly high percentage.
The Cameroon U17 team had previously assembled 30 players to prepare for the upcoming youth tournament. In order to ensure that the age of the participating players was true, the team had arranged for MRI tests before the tournament to infer the actual age of the players by measuring the growth of their wrists and bones. In a statement, the Cameroon FA noted, "Of the current 30 players, 21 have failed the MRI test and they have been removed with immediate effect."
Although Cameroon has not been banned for the incident, the team has had to urgently recruit new players. Since taking office, Idouo has been working to crack down on age falsification and last year held hearings with eight clubs totaling 44 players on age and identity issues. It is worth noting that Idoğu himself, 41, was involved in an age-fudging scandal when he was a player, with an ex-girlfriend claiming that his actual age was seven years older than his public age.
