The Sunday Mail
Langton Nyakwenda
Sports Reporter
IT iS a rampant and perennial age-old scourge.
And it seems the more the things change, the more they remain the same.
Exactly a year ago, Zimbabwe suffered the ignominy of being ejected from the COSAFA Under-17 Championship after one of their players failed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test.
But with local football authorities having swept the matter under the carpet, the same scourge came back to haunt the Young Warriors as it ultimately forced the country to embarrassingly withdraw the boys’ and girls’ sides.
Nine of the Under-17 players who were part of the 25-man squad in camp for the African Union Sports Council Region Five Youths Games in Lesotho failed the MRI test, which meant they were age-cheaters.
The mission to send the Young Warriors and the Young Mighty Warriors to Maseru was also complicated by the fact that some of the footballers had not been vaccinated and could not travel as part of Team Zimbabwe.
ZIFA had promised to institute an inquiry after last year’s incident, but 12 months later no report has come out.
Instead, more age-cheating cases have been discovered.
National Under-17 coach Tafadzwa Mashiri was left a disappointed man and he also blamed the absence of junior football programmes in the country for the latest mishap.
“The players are devastated. They will not be going to participate because of some policy issues. “Because football was closed due to Covid-19, we had to rely on provinces. They did their selection and came up with players for national selection,” said Mashiri.
“We had 92 players drawn from all provinces and then we whittled the list down to those who made the final camp.
“The Under-17 camp was going well and we had done a lot in terms of preparations, but obviously we had to climax that with the MRI tests to determine the eligibility of players.
“Unfortunately, nine players could not make it and we had to run around to find replacements. However, it must be noted that these players are not necessarily over-aged . . . It is about the player’s bone structure, how fast it develops; sometimes it’s about the bone frame or genes,” he said.
Coordinator of the selectors Lloyd Chigowe, who has also been criticised for the way he handled the issue, shifted blame to some academies “for sending over-aged players for selection with a target of marketing players at all costs”.
“It’s a wake-up call that needs urgent attention,” said Chigowe.
“The onus is on the academies and junior teams to desist from sending over-aged boys for selection. Others are also complicit by not divulging information on known over-aged players.
“Having a nationwide comprehensive database will assist in overcoming this scourge.
“Africa used to be a jungle where anyone could play, but science and technology is now levelling the playing field.
“The current crisis could have been avoided had we completed selection early to enable proper age verification through investigation and early MRI scan.”
The former Dynamos coach said there was need for punitive measures going forward.
“The good thing is that we now have district structures in seven provinces and intend to identify and develop talent in all those districts. Data capture is key in weeding out born-again athletes,” he said.
Legends Academy coach Farai Dhliwayo blames age-cheating on maladministration.
“The disease in local football is maladministration. The symptoms are non-accountability, ineptitude and corruption,” he said.
“I still believe that the Sports and Recreation Commission and the ministry’s suspension of ZIFA was the correct call, but they must be under no illusions of what will be required and the tough decisions required to change the local game. “The cure is to professionalise local football in line with international standards without making excuses. Many will not qualify, some will be excluded but this is required when setting standards.”
Dumile Ndlovu, a junior development coach in Victoria Falls, thinks the key lies in reviving junior football development structures.
“At the moment, we are working on district structures which will be responsible for electing the national structures.
“The way forward in the selection of national junior teams is we will run the inter-district competitions, then provincial and inter-provincial competitions to select the national junior teams at national Under-15 and Under-17 level . . . We will be working with National Association of Primary School Heads (NAPH) and National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) because they have all the records.”
He said as soon as national structures are in place, they will canvass for sponsorship to revive all national junior championships that used to be there in the 1980s and 1990s, which produced superstars such as
Moses Chunga, Madinda Ndlovu and Willard Khumalo.
Mashonaland East-based junior football expert Tapiwa Ndewere explained the MRI test process.
“The MRI test may mean the player is not eligible to play and it might mean that the player who was caught by the machine might be of the same age range but not eligible to participate. Not all that are caught on the MRI are over-aged. That’s according to my own understanding,” he said.
“The issue of age-cheating is cancerous and I think the root cause is not having proper knowledge of what junior development is. People want to win at all costs and will do anything.”
Mashonaland East is reportedly in the process of creating structures and a database of players as young as 13-years-old.
“Our junior football is in shambles because we do not have any approach in terms of how we structure our junior tournaments, how we scout – it is just haphazard . . .
“It’s disheartening to note that the selection process has become a short-cut. Last time we were disqualified because of the same MRI issue.
“I thought after that we would see something like a measure or punishment to whoever was accountable.
“Let’s have a policy that will punish offenders,” said Ndewere.
But all that ZIFA did after the Young Warriors were expelled from last year’s COSAFA tournament was to issue a statement promising to investigate the matter.
ZIFA communications manager Xolisani Gwesela was not immediately available to give an update.
However, Midlands junior football coach Thomas Sandiram is also a worried man.
“The issue of age-cheating has been going on for too long now and it’s really getting out of hand. What happened with those nine was so embarrassing for the country to say the least,” he said.
“What has gone wrong is that we have had people who want to win at all costs, including using over-aged players.
“It’s not only them to blame but also administrators at ZIFA who appoint them at short notice just before a tournament without identifying the correct youngsters for the different age groups.”
He noted that there was need for vibrant junior development programmes.
“As junior development coaches, we are setting up district structures for the purposes of identifying and developing talent.
“We also intend to create a database with information for players in all age groups.”
There was a time in the mid-2000s when Zimbabwe was a regional powerhouse in junior football.
Zimbabwe won the 2007 COSAFA Under-17 Cup after beating South Africa on penalties in an exciting final.
Two years earlier, the Young Warriors Zimbabwe had also qualified for the Africa Under-17 Championships that were staged in Gambia.
They also featured at the 2009 Africa Under-17 Championships in Algeria, although they came back empty-handed.
That was in an era when development was still a priority for football administrators.
