It was India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, that said: 'Evil unchecked grows, evil tolerated poisons the whole system.' This timeless truism illustrates how age cheating in sports, toleratedyears ago, has become a behemoth that is causing Nigerian sporting attainments to pale into insignificance, while the practitioners end up having a less than honourable sunset for their careers. What was seen as an African scourge in times past has spread to Asia, Europe and North America, among other nations. ENO-ABASI SUNDAY writes on efforts made by the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM) to revive academicals in the country and how the absence of an authentic data bank, the connivance of cheating parents and sports administrators and the use of non-students in age-group international competitions constitute the greatest factors that retard sports development in the country.ONE of the most bizarre and shocking cases of age fraud in world sports was uncovered a few years ago in South Africa, when a local journalist, Thomas Kwenaite, unearthed a handful of 'age-cheats,' who represented the country in an U-16 tournament in France.Making it more scandalous was the fact that the captain of the side, it later emerged, was a 24-year old university student from Port Elizabeth. In a bid to force the belief that his son was within the needed age-limit hence eminently qualified to represent South Africa at the cadet championship, the captain's father dragged Kwenaite to the South African press Ombudsman, charging him for slandering his ward.But the shamed dad was forced to swallow his vomit and withdraw the complaint after documents obtained from schools indicated that the captain would have started school at the tender age of two. But the revelation did not stop hordes of people branding Kwenaite as being 'unpatriotic.'When the chairman of the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee (NASCOM), Segun Odegbami declared recently that henceforth, the body would prevent any Nigerian that is not registered in school from representing the country at any Under 17 national and international competitions, he was trying to nip in the bud, a situation, where Nigeria could be made to suffer this kind of embarrassment after all what she has gone through in the past.Sadly, many, especially disgruntled sports administrators and corrupt parents and athlete managers took that declaration as one of those policy statements that the passage of time would water down and its effect eroded.But in making the declaration, Odegbami, an ex-international, stressed that it was the right thing to do if the revival of academicals sports in the country was to be realised.For him, 'at that age, all Nigerian children are supposed to be in school. (So) no one outside of secondary school shall represent the country.'Perhaps never in the history of Nigerian sports has the war against age falsification and sundry fraudulent practices, at least at the age group level, been taken this serious. But the truth remains that curing the age-long sore demands much more than words because it has become cancerous.Over the years, the issue of age cheating and sundry fraudulent practices has assumed a frightening dimension in the country's sports sector and in the process attracted immense odium to both the individual players involved and the country.Unfortunately, most sport administrators, coaches and parents still pay scant heed to its damaging repercussions in the polity.A typical example of the way our players' reputation and personal integrity have been soiled on account of alleged age discrepancies can be gleaned from the comments made on 21st February, 2008 by the Everton Football Club manager, David Moyes, after Yakubu Aiyegbeni scored a hat-trick in a UEFA Cup game.He said, 'He's only 25, albeit a Nigerian 25, and so if that is his age he's still got a good few years ahead of him.'Super Eagles and former Inter Milan fleet-footed striker, Obafemi Martins, also had the indignity of having his age status questioned by a stream of media houses from across the world, when his personal documents bore a different date of birth from the one bandied about by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).Clearly, even though this obnoxious practice is believed to have infiltrated all sporting disciplines in the country, the football sector, appears to be the worst hit.The spate of age-related scandals the NFF has been involved in over the last two and half decades, lends credence to this assertion.However, in the view of NASCOM, which was set up by the National Sports Commission (NSC) at the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan, to revive grassroots sports through schools, allowing the status quo ante remain is tantamount to allowing a bad situation to get worse. This, it concludes, will do just one thing-blight the country's sport future in perpetuity.According to Odegbami, 'We are quite conscious of the Nigerian factor that cripples bright ideas and renders them impotent even before they start. We are fully aware of the problems and challenges that we shall encounter along the way. But we welcome the challenges and remain undeterred. We believe achieving this is a mission that will change the face of Nigerian sports, the youths and education for ever.'We have no illusions about the enormity of the obstacles that stand between us and success, but for the good of our children, for the future of the next generation, for the unity and peace of our country driven by the youths, we have a responsibility and a mandate to make our own little contribution to the desired transformation agenda of Mr. President, and make a difference. That's all we can do' make a difference. There is still a long way to go in this marathon race, but we pledge and promise that we shall not give up, no matter the odds, for that is the stuff great sportsmen are made of,' Odegbami vowed.The ex-international, who lamented that the scourge of cheating, mercenaries, falsification of documents, and use of non-students in age-group international competitions constitute the greatest factors that retard sports development in the country, added, 'the tragedy is that whereas everyone appreciates this problem, it has defied all solution, so far. That's why to succeed this time NASCOM has decided to attack it frontally and with all vigour and seriousness.'He added: 'Genuine students have been denied for too long the opportunity to participate in sports and benefit from doing so. Where non-students, older persons, and mercenaries take the place of genuine youngsters and students, it is society that bears the consequences in breeding a generation of cheats, deprived youngsters, cheating parents, and teachers, principals, coaches and administrators conniving to perpetuate this stunted development in morals, ethics, and sports. This ugly practice makes our achievements to lack credibility and makes us inauthentic (even before the international community) as many of our cheating athletes have found out when rejected for presenting false documents in embassies when attempting to go abroad, to enjoy the benefits of numerous scholarships available overseas for talented athletes. The right kids are denied this access and opportunity! This must stop now.'He revealed that NASCOM, in conjunction with all educational and sports stakeholders, has taken the bold step to introduce a registration process, 'with a data bank of information on all student athletes in secondary schools in Nigeria, that will be vigorous, authentic and that will restore the integrity of our schools system and provide correct information on school athletes.'The registration process provides the key to the success of this initiative. Schools shall register to participate in at least two sports. Schools shall present a list of the students that shall represent them in the sports selected that year. The list of the students, plus all their basic information shall be attested to by the school's Principal who will swear to it before a commissioner of oaths in a court of law, or before a Notary Public. The bio-data (finger print and photo) of the student athletes will be captured and will be available on the worldwide web.'Once captured no vital information of the student can be changed again for life! NASCOM shall be working in conjunction with the Sports Network Initiative (SNI), a registered body of all institutional sports in Nigeria with the responsibility to collate and maintain the data of all student athletes in all institutions in Nigeria. Any false information provided by the schools will be investigated by the Monitoring/Policing Committee and any culprit principal or owner will be handed over to appropriate authorities to be dealt with. Only students registered through their schools that have participated in an inter-schools competition can represent a state in the National Academicals Championships.'Only such students shall also be eligible to represent Nigeria in any international under-17 competition. NASCOM shall send this decision to all relevant sports agencies for their knowledge and action,' he added.African and indeed world football is not alien to the issue of age falsification also referred to as age fabrication. According to Wikipedia, which prides itself as the free encyclopaedia, 'age fabrication occurs when an individual deliberately misrepresents his or her true age. This is usually done with the intent to garner privileges or status that would not otherwise be available to the individual. It may be done through the use of oral or written statements or through the altering, doctoring or forging of vital records.'On some occasions, age is increased so as to make cut-offs for minimum legal or employable age in show business or professional sports. Sometimes it is not the people themselves who lower their public age, but others around them such as publicists, parents, and other handlers. Most cases involve taking or adding one or two years to their age. However, in more extreme cases, a decade has been added or subtracted.'However, in sports, some athletes have been known to falsify their ages to fit into age-specific events at national and international levels. While there are prominent examples of age shaving in athletics and football, it is also on record that in figure skating, diving and gymnastics, competitors may pad their ages in order to bring themselves over the age limits for senior competition.For some inexplicable reasons, age cheating has been made to look like an African scourge, but if truth must be told, it is not, but a sore that plagues very many countries from Asia, Europe, and North America among others. A few examples involving individuals and teams will suffice.Danny Almonte, born April 7, 1987 played for his Bronx team in the Little League World Series in 2001. At this time, he was over the cut-off age for the league, but went ahead to star for the team based on the doctored birth certificate procured by his parents, which misrepresented his year of birth as 1989.Throughout his career on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour, American golfer, Tom Shaw claimed to have been born on December 13, 1942. Many including the then United States Golf Association Executive Director, Frank Hannigan, suspected he was older. Their suspicion was confirmed when in 1988, he produced a birth certificate, which indicated that he was born on the same date in 1938.In South America, Brazilian Carlos Alberto de Oliveira Jnior was banned for 360 from football for using fake documents to claim that he was born in January 24, 1983, after he won the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.Also in July, 1988, Mexico was banned from all international football competitions for two years, including the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, because a Mexican junior team in a world championship qualifying tournament used four players, who were found to be older than they claimed.In Asia, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Tajikistan and Iraq were disqualified from the 2008 (Asian Football Federation (AFC) U-16 Championship after qualifying for fielding over-aged players at the qualifying rounds.Africa has had its fair share of the age-related scandals involving both individual players and an entire team. Peeved by the shock revelations by some players themselves that they were over 18 years old, the Kenyan government in 2003 dissolved the country's Under-17 national football team as a result of the age fraud.The same year this was taking place, Ghana's Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Joe Aggrey, confessed that his country cheated in the past. He went on to say that the current football policy aimed at eliminating over-aged players from age-specific football competitions would rejuvenate football in the country and erect structures for the emergence of a formidable national team.Aggrey may have conceded that, 'in the past we were cheating and winning, but the right thing must be done now,' but evidence on ground do not point to the fact that the West African country has turned a new leaf.Last December after experiencing Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), captain and central defender of the Senegalese U-17 national football team, Diawandou Diagne, Herv Didhiou and goalkeeper Samba Diallo, were expelled from the team to the AFCON U17 Championship in Rwanda for being over-age. In that particular championship, Mali had seven of their players also bundled out for similar reasons.Nigeria has also tasted the bitter pills that come with seeking for glory with the wrong players as it suffered the wrath of FIFA in 1989, when her cadet teams were banned for parading older players in FIFA-organised youth tournaments. This was after discrepancies were noticed in the birth dates of three players at the 1988 Olympics, which conflicted with the data given by same players at previous tournaments.Other than the two-year ban, the country was also stripped the hosting right of the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship. Within that period, next door neighbour, Ghana also came under the hammer of world governing body and was also disqualified.A decade later in 2009, ex-international and former Rivers State Commissioner for Justice, Adokiye Amiesimaka came down hard on the NFF accusing them of taking sides with age-cheats because it gave the country an undue advantage over other contenders.In his characteristic manner, Amiesimaka, who represented Nigeria at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, said at least nine players named in the country's U-17 squad to the 2009 FIFA U-17 Wold Cup, had no business being in the team.Writing in his column in The Punch newspaper under the caption 'Once again, we have let our children down,'Amiesimaka claimed that team captain, Fortune Chukwudi played for his Sharks Football Club youth team as far back as 2002/2003 football season.'In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt' 'I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years. As the feeder team concept was relatively new and because I had my own ideas about how a team at that level should be handled, I also doubled as its coach. One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under 17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old.Amiesimaka, a royal father continued, 'Remember the Magnetic Resonance Imaging, (MRI) test that disqualified a greater percentage of players in our previous team as over-aged, thereby decimating that team' MRI or not, his football history is common knowledge. If we are not utterly irresponsible, how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now' I really wonder whether the MRI test was done on each and every one of the players. If, indeed, a thorough exercise was conducted, then FIFA must review the procedure.'The legal practitioner, who is of the opinion that age fraud in cadet championships is still endemic in Africa, added, 'For the avoidance of doubt, it is not only Nigeria that should be the focus of FIFA's attention, but every participating country in the tournament should also be carefully scrutinised.'Even though medical science has come to the rescue, taking care of the Under-17 level, through the MRI scan of the wrist bone, determining the true age of those qualified with some 99 per cent certainty, some analysts are of the opinion that this is not a fool proof way of screening those qualified to play for the U-20 and U-23 championships as they claim that bone development stops within a year or at most two after they featured at the U-17 tournaments. Consequently, by the time the teenage footballers get up to age 20, it becomes impossible to precisely determine their true age with the same test.Across the world, FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) have been accused by critics of not tackling the scourge with the aggressiveness it deserves. Specifically CAF has been accused of deflecting to address the matter with the vague excuse of not being qualified to question the validity of the passport sovereign nations have issued their nationals.But for National University Games (NUGA) President, Dr. Ken Anugweje, there is no fool-proof way of ascertaining the right age of teenage athletes hence the need for record keeping to be given utmost attention if we are really set to go past the inglorious past, which has robbed us of true glory.'I make bold to say that there is no fool-proof scientific way of determining the exact age of these teenage athletes, not even the MRI scan because development of youths from different parts of the world is affected by environmental and nutritional factors.'For instance, it is a known fact that most Nigerian athletes are children of the poor, who wander away from home to where they fall in love with a particular sport. With their poor background, you can't quite say they have access to the kind of balanced diet that their peers from other developed parts of the world do. Exposing these two to medical examination is bound to bring about, conflicting results because even the rate of bone development in them will not be the same.'When the bio data of the Nigerian team to the last U-17 FIFA World Cup was made public, not a few Nigerians were appalled when one of the star players, Stanley Osaretin Okoro's weight was put at 70 kg. He was not the only one with this questionable weight for a teenage footballer. The likes of Terry Envoh (70 kg), Chukwujike Mgbam (71 kg); Omoh Ojabu (71 kg); Sani Shehu Emmanuel (70 kg); Yusuf Olaitan Otubanjo (70 kg); Amos Ossai Izuchukwu (70 kg) and Edafe Egbedi (71 kg) all fall into this category.For Anugweje, since individual weight depends on their body mass, a lot of questions need be asked why a teenage athlete, who is good enough to represent a country should weigh that high. 'So I would conclude that any teenage athlete, who is that heavy at age 16 and under is to overweight to represent and incapable of representing the country at age group competition because that definitely is not his true age.On why age falsification persists in Nigerian sports, he said, 'Since most of our athletes hail from poor homes, their parents see them as money spinning machines and are always ready, in concert with their coaches/administrators to falsify their age documents so as to allow them gain undue advantages whenever the opportunity present itself. With this kind of scenario, there is the dire need for record keeping to be given a lot of attention. That is why I am 100 per cent behind Segun Odegbami, in his bid to revive academicals sports as well as put in place a data bank of information on all student athletes in secondary schools in Nigeria.Also bent on expunging the age cheat bug from the nation's fabric is Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF).According to its President, Ibrahim Mohammad, who spoke in Lagos recently, as part of the measures to curb cheating, the NSSF would partner Sports Network Initiative (SNI) in the registration and confirmation of biometrics of players.Mohammad, who spoke through the NSSF Secretary General, Olabisi Joseph, said checking age cheats in the country, became necessary considering the problem currently bedevilling Nigerian football, which she said the body wants to nip in the bud.
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