Africa’s football governing body, the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) has disqualified two countries from participating in the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers due to age cheating.
Of the eight teams that arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Sunday for the qualifiers, two countries, Sudan and Djibouti will return home for listing players above 17.
The two countries were disqualified from participating in the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA) zonal qualifiers after some of their players failed the mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests.
CECAFA Executive Director, Auka Gecheo confirmed that the CAF Youth Organizing Committee disqualified the two teams according to article 27.4 of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations regulations.
The article stipulates that: “ If after performing the age eligibility test (MRI) for a participating team and one (1) player was found non-eligible, the participating team will be disqualified.”
Group A of the qualifiers has hosts Ethiopia, Somalia and Tanzania. Group B of the tournament draws paired Uganda alongside Burundi and South Sudan.
The finalists at the Zonal Qualifiers will get the two available tickets to the final tournament.