Cameroon U17 squad shredded after 21 players fail age screening tests

January 5 - Cameroonian football has again been rocked by an age-cheating scandal with 21 of the national team's 30 under-17 players disqualified after failing chief-ordered MRI tests of the FA (Fecafoot) of the country, Samuel Eto'o.

The former Barcelona and Inter Milan striker's insistence on using age screening has seen the team ravaged at their training camp on the outskirts of Yaoundé, coach Jean Pierre Fiala struggling to find replacements for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers

Cameroon will host Congo, Chad, DR Congo and Central African Republic for the Union of Central African Football Federations (UNIFFAC) qualifiers from January 12-24, and two teams will qualify for the Under-17 Nations Cup in April in Algeria.

A statement from Fecafoot indicates that Eto'o gave "strict instructions" on the measures to be taken "in order to put an end to the falsifications of civil status documents which have, in the past, tarnished the image Cameroonian football". /p>

"As part of the preparations for the UNIFFAC Limbé 2023 tournament, a qualifier for the next U17 African Nations Championship, 21 players out of the 30 currently in training have failed MRI tests.

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"Fecafoot urges all actors, especially educators, to ensure that the ages by category are respected."

FIFA introduced MRI scanners at the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Nigeria. The scans work by measuring the bone structure.

In 2017, Fecafoot prevented 14 players from taking part in the U17 AFCON in Gabon. Eto'o promised to tackle the problem when he was elected president a year ago

Allegations of overage players have been a long-standing concern for African football, particularly at youth level. In 2019, Guinea were expelled from the Under-17 World Cup after two of their players were found guilty of cheating on age.

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