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Cameroon Federation Runs Age Tests On Young Players

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Football federations often need to take tough calls in order to ensure that the game of football is played in a fair manner.

The football federation in Cameroon came under the radar recently as some of the players were found to be cheating about their age. As many as fourteen players had to be suspended under this allegation.

The case of age fraud might not be serious, but it is a step that needs to be taken by football federations across the world to ensure that the right examples are set and other countries follow suit. Transparency and accuracy of physical parameters are important in a game like football where the skills and talents of players depend on their age as well. Cameroon football federation definitely took an important step when age analyses were done and the ones who were found to be guilty of having misled in this aspect were suspended from the game. The federation revealed that several players has been lying in order to get into the under 17 category for the Africa Cup of Nations, which would be held at Madagascar in the following year.

It is commonplace among African nations as age related certification is difficult to acquire as records are often not in place in many states. Hence, in many African nations the accurate age of a player is difficult to determine. In order to overcome this obstacle MRI testing has been introduced which can help to curtail such defects in the recording system and catch fraudulent cases. About 40 players in the under 17 category were tested and about one third of the population was found to have been at fault with regard to their age accuracy. The report of the same was even broadcasted in the local radio networks.

It is found that the technology of magnetic resonance imaging or MRI that is a common medical diagnostic tool, can give information to the examiners about body structures which can help experts to determine the age of a young player with near enough accuracy. This examination technique has been in vogue since 2009 for the under 17 World Cup category.