October 18 – Senegal has denied reports of age-cheating after announcing their 21-man squad for the Under-17 World Cup in Brazil later this month.
Age cheating has become the scourge of international tournaments hosted by the Confederation of African Football (AFC) but Senegal insist their squad meets the regulations.
“The Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) wishes to inform the public that, to date, no player from the U-17 national team selected for the FIFA World Cup ‘Brazil 2019’ has been denied because of fraud on the part of age, as has been relayed by some local media,” the federation said in a statement.
The tournament begins on October 26 with the final set for November 17.
Senegal qualified as one of Africa’s four representatives after Guinea were thrown out for fielding over-age players at the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations in Tanzania in April.
Ironically it was Senegal who complained about Guinea cheating at that tournament when the two countries met.
Senegal claimed they had evidence that two Guinea players forged their date of births to be eligible for the tournament.
Both the implicated players featured when the Guineans beat Senegal 2-1 in a Group B match. The two players, Aboubacar Conté and Ahmed Tidiane Keïta, were suspected of having changed their identity between a tournament hosted by Japan in 2017 and the recent competition.
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