By Patrick Akoto
Ghana’s Under-17 players will undergo compulsory MRI bone scan test ahead of the African Under-17 Championship qualifiers, Fifa has ordered.
The Ghana Federation has been ordered to do the test and submit the report to the world governing body by June 15 in a move which will ascertain the veracity of the ages of the players.
The exercise by Fifa is to ensure the age-long problem of age-cheating is reduced drastically.
The vice-chairman of the Black Starlets management committee Winfred Osei Parma says the Federation will comply with the directive.
“We were very much aware that we’ll get to the point where MRI scan will be required for each player,†Parma told Joy Sports
“What has to be done is to make sure we submit a report to Caf and Fifa by 15th of June and management is working feverishly to ensure that requirement is met.
“You know in Africa, it’s being an old stuff where countries complain about the ages of opponent.
“So if you’re moving into a major competition of that nature, it beholves on the respective countries to have MRI scan and the report sent to Fifa or Caf for that matter.
“Because if we don’t do that there is no way we can have a true champion at that level,â€
It would be recalled that Nigeria was banned by Fifa after it emerged they used over-aged players at the 1993 Under-World Cup in Japan.
Ghana has also dropped players after they failed the test prior to the World Under-17 championship held in Peru in 2005.
The Black Starlets, two-time world champions, will face the Baby Scorpions on the weekend of 19-21 October in Banjul for the first leg of the qualifiers.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a test that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body.
It evaluates age (in this instance, of football players) from the degree of fusion of the distal radius (in the wrist) and compares these findings with those of normal population of similar age.