Safa president Jordaan urges Caf, Fifa to look into age cheating

Photos of some of the players from the Democratic Republic of Congo Under-16 team who won a Caf schools’ tournament recently caused a social media stir.  

ALSO READ: Former Chiefs and Bafana star struggling to make ends meet

The players looked bigger and older than their said years and debates about age cheating in African youth tournaments took centre stage. 

Now Safa president Danny Jordaan who was at the tournament in DRC has urged Caf and Fifa to look into the matter of age cheating. 

“The boys’ competition is something that Caf and world football governing body Fifa needs to look into,” Jordaan said as quoted by Sunday World.

“Many people who were at the tournament were rather not convinced that some of the players who took part were under the age of 16.

“Age cheating is a problem but there isn’t much that we can do because all the players present official documents from their government. There were some big boys there. Caf will have to look into this matter,” added Jordaan.

He suggested that age cheating at youth level may be the reason African countries are failing to thrive at senior level on the world stage. 

“This has been a consistent problem of African football and we have to address the issue. 

“This is anti-development because if you are playing at under-16 and you are supposed to be playing in an age category much higher… it cannot be a true measure of teams on the field, especially in school competitions.”