CMR gets Ghana disqualified from Africa U17 games

CAF has disqualified Ghana from playing at the Africa U17 Championship in Niger next year for fielding an ineligible player after a protest by Cameroon claiming an overage player was fielded in their final qualifier.

The organising committee of the competition ruled that one player from the Black Starlets team that played in the first-leg of the final round of the qualifier was overage after the Cameroonians protested against SEVEN PLAYERS in the Ghana team.

But the ruling by CAF has been strongly disputed by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) who says two MRI report on the player – one in the presence of a CAF medical officer – by the Consultant Radiologist in Ghana indicates that he is fully within the age category.

“The Ghana Football Association confirms receipt of a letter from CAF disqualifying the National U-17 team, the Black Starlets from the U-17 Championship to be played in Niger in 2015..,” a Ghana FA statement on the federation’s official website revealed on Sunday night.

The issue blew up last month when Cameroon filed a protest against seven (7) players of the Ghana U-17 national team on 13th September 2014 after the first-leg match of the third round of the qualifier which Ghana won 2-1. Out of the seven (7) players, the CAF Medical Committee made adverse findings against two players.

CAF subsequently requested a retest of the two players using the F-Marc procedure for age determination which was done in Ghana on 1st October, in the presence of a CAF Medical Committee member.

The Radiologist Consultant in Ghana who carried out both the initial MRI tests and rescanning in the presence of a CAF medical officer, confirmed that the said player was within the age limit.

However, CAF wrote to the GFA on Saturday claiming the analysis of the MRI report from a Medical Centre in Ghana contradicts the analysis of two CAF medical experts on the eligibility of one of the players.