Liberia has been excluded from the UFOA-A U17 qualifying tournament for the AFCON of the category. The Liberian federation would have cheated on the age of two players. A case that is making a lot of talk in the country of George Weah. The Minister of Sports of the country holds the federation mainly responsible.
No UFOA-A U17 tournament for Liberia. The competition, qualifying for the AFCON U17 is currently taking place in Mauritania. But CAF has excluded the Liberian team. "CAF has excluded Liberia from the UFOA/A U17 tournament, in accordance with Article 27.4 of the rules of the AFCON of the category, due to the ineligibility of 2 players of Leon stars U17 pinned to the test of age through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)," reads a statement from the Mauritanian Football Federation.
A situation that has put the Liberian Minister of Sports, Zeogar Wilson, in a tizzy. "This is totally unacceptable for us. It has embarrassed the country. Those responsible must be punished," he said.
Minister of Sports opens investigation
The president of the Liberian Football Federation, Musa Hassan Bility, tried to explain: "The MRI in Jahmale (Paynesville Hospital) can only read up to 0.33 Tesla. The standard FCA requirement is 1.5 Tesla. So the due diligence conducted by the LFA was based on confirmation from the parents of each player, who was part of the Liberia delegation to Mauritania," he says.
He continues. "We had explicit confidence in the parents because we are not the ones who gave birth to them, but we believed the parents based on the information provided after a series of meetings. Unfortunately, science and technology proved that two of the players were not eligible to participate in the competition, resulting in Liberia being disqualified."
Explanations that hardly convince Liberia's sports minister. "The LFA did not take responsibility. The LFA has not indicated that it would even launch an investigation. I refused to accept what the LFA boss called due diligence based on parental information and consent forms," he said. Some people want their children to get out and have opportunities. Why do you think Caf and Fifa introduced MRI if they only relied on player certificates, passports or playing cards of their members? So it's not an excuse to rely on parents." In fact, he has opened an investigation to get to the bottom of this matter.
