Page to age rage
As the FIFA Under-17
World Cup 2013 plays away in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) we find ourselves being ambivalent about the players my other footballing country of Nigeria has fielded. I support England be reason of birth and the Netherlands having lived there for 12 years. [Wikipedia]
We as fans of a
football loving country are always taken by the amazing performance of our
players, as somewhere in our minds we wonder whether the players are really as
young as they state they are.
In 2008, David Moyes, then Everton
manager made this comment
about Yakubu Aiyegbeni,
“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.” [BBC News]
Whatever he might
have been alluding to, he created the perception probably long held that some
Nigerian players might well be many years older than the ages presented in
their contractual documents.
Age fraud and overwhelming successes
Age fraud
in association football is well documented in Africa and Asia, Nigeria was
even suspended and sanctioned for fielding over-aged players in certain FIFA
tournaments. [Wikipedia]
Nigeria is the most
successful team in the U-17 World Cup tournament having been in six finals, winning three, followed by Brazil in five finals, winning two, but we must come to a stage
where we are confident that we are playing on a level field without taking advantage of our opponents.
We must be in the
eligible age range and what should show is our football talent and prowess in
our taking the laurels. This however is not to take away from the successes of
teams past and the pride we have in all their victories.
Some science to the rescue
In 2009, FIFA introduced
the mandatory use of Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which apparently has 99% accuracy in determining how old a person is up until the age of 17 after which it is difficult for medical expertise to determine the age that accurately. [BBC
Sport]
The MRI system of age
determination checks the grade of ossification/fusion in the distal radius [bones
at the wrist] where fusion suggests the subject is above the age of 17 and
thereby ineligible to compete in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament. [NIH] [BBC Sport]
Courtesy of Wikipedia [Source]
Many African
countries first rejected this age determination process, but it is the best science could do for countries that have poor documentation processes that have no proper trust or verification systems to ascertain the provenance or authenticity of birth certificates or declarations. [BBC News]
My scepticism is predicated on whether our kind of physiology is catered for and whether the scanners are calibrated to account to possible racial differences in bone structure, environment, diet and other factors. However, this is the best system we have to rely on now.
A poor record-keeping culture
We do not have proper systems to register life births in hospitals or maternity homes, our municipalities have poor record keeping systems for the registration of births, of marriages and of deaths; beyond which there is no centralised archiving system to maintain such information if acquired.
What we have
adopted is a system of swearing affidavits, many of which are taken on
self-recognisance given the weight of a notary public and then rubber stamped
by the judicial arm of government.
These poor archiving
systems permeate all works life; in government, in the private sector and in
academia. There was an instance where a PhD holder from a reputable institution
in the UK had to present all certificates he had acquired dating back to primary
school after a 25-year career, with him approaching 50 to take up an appointment in
Nigeria.
I dare say that
white Africans are far ahead on the record keeping and documentation front; in
another world, they would probably be able to produce enough documentary
evidence to lay claim to anything even if acquired fraudulently by their
forebears.
The fun in record keeping
I watch programmes
on British television like "Who Do You Think You Are?" and I am always impressed with how researchers could trawl through archives going back centuries to piece together genealogies, ancestries and histories. We probably have just the adulterated and sometimes exaggerated or fabled oral histories to go by – we need to pay more heed to record keeping and documentation.
The idea that our
sports ambassadors have to be herded like cattle through MRI scan turnstiles to
determine the ages of the participants is degrading enough, if not disgraceful,
but we brought this ignominious exercise upon ourselves.
We must address this now
The FIFA U-16 World
Championship founded in 1985 and then renamed to FIFA U-17 World Cup has been
running for 28 years. We should have learnt the lessons by now to ensure any
new entrants to the competition have a good paper trail of birth certificates, medical
histories, school reports and other supporting documentation not to have to suffer
the indignities of an MRI scan.
This must be
integral to our health policy, our education policy and other population census
documentation and government planning policies. We need to get to a stage where
the writing on any document emerging from our countries is worth the paper it
is written on and accepted as authentic by any verification or certification
organisation anywhere in the world.
