Tomori, NCMP – South Sudan’s football governing body has been admonished to acquire MRI testing equipment instead of waste resources investigating considering the outdated system of age assessment in the country.
Imagine grandma telling her child a story surrounding the period of the child’s birth in order to get the exact date of birth. South Sudan has been affected by war, so this makes age assessment difficult.
In a Statement from SSFA on the disqualification of national team U17 from CECAFA U17 Championship in Rwanda seen by NCMP, SSFA affirms its strong commitment to integrity and full sportsmanship by following rules & regulations of all competitions.
In the statement, the SSFA management also confirms that none of the staff knew that the players were over age because their birth certificates indicated that they are seventeen or below hence the reason the players have been part of the squad’s preparations and final selection for the tournament.
The MRI results stated otherwise which led to the disqualification of our whole squad, SSFA has and will always uphold strong integrity values and follow all rules and regulations that’s why we shall investigate why the above happened.
It’s paramount for SSFA to prevent future occurrences by acquiring state-of-the-art MRI equipment considering the peculiarity of South Sudan. MRI scans are used globally to determine whether players are eligible for Under-17 competitions in particular.
With this procedure, believed to be more than 99% accurate, the medical team also looks for bone fusions in the human wrist, which are highly unlikely to occur before the age of 17.
