Only one player certified overage

FAM has said following the magnetic reasoning scanning (MRI) conducted last week, only one player was deemed overage for the 10th edition of the CAF Under-17 Youth Championship.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) said age tests for players that will take part in the tournament would be mandatory.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda described the exercise as a success.

“The tests were conducted last week at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) and only one player was deemed overage.

“We have since sent the certified results to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“We were required to send the results by Sunday and we managed to beat the cut-off point,” said Nyirenda.

CAF spokesperson Suleiman Habuba last week said any country that would not send its players for age tests, would be disqualified from the tournament.

Malawi is scheduled to face Botswana in the preliminary round in September.

The CAF media officer said this is one way of curbing age-cheating in the junior tournaments.

Nyirenda said more players that will be identified from the Copa Coca Cola Schools tournament will also undergo the tests.

“We have notified CAF that we’ll be conducting more tests at a later stage because we want to have a pool of players from which to choose from in case of other eventualities,” said Nyirenda.