FIFA’s age limited championships – are we still cheating?

Nigeria narrowly failed to win the FIFA U-17 World Cup for a record equalling fourth time. This follows on the heels of Ghana’s triumph at the U-20 World Cup in October. Ghana has won the U-17 twice. Nigeria won Olympic gold in football in 1994. Africa’s success at FIFA’s age limited competitions is phenomenal. But what is this doing to our adult football? Virtually nothing! Our dominance at youth level has not been carried over to the senior level where it matters most. Why is it that Africa does so well at these competitions but fizzle out when it comes to the real thing? Look at our performances at the junior levels and compare them with the “real” World Cup.

Under 16/17 FIFA World Cup: Nigeria won the inaugural competition in 1985 and also won in 1993 and 2007. They have four more second places – 1987, 1995, 2001 and 2009. Ghana won twice (1991 and 1995) and took second place in 1993 and 1997. We also have a third place in 1999 and 2007. Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso have also won a third place each. This is a remarkable achievement for Africa’s 17 year olds.

U-20 World Cup: This tournament started in Tunisia in 1977. In 1985 Nigeria came third in the championships held in the Soviet Union. Nigeria would make it to their first ever finals in 1989 in Saudi Arabia, losing to Portugal. In Australia 1993, Ghana lost the finals to Brazil. Ghana took fourth place in the championships held in Malaysia in 1997. In the games held in Nigeria 1999, Mali took third place. In 2001, Ghana would come second to hosts Argentina. In 2005, Nigeria lost the final to Argentina in a tournament staged in the Netherlands. 2009 – Ghana makes it as the first African country to win the U-20 in a nail-biting final that is still too fresh in our memories to need recounting here. Africa’s performance at this level is good but nowhere near our success level at the U-17.

The senior World Cup: This is FIFA’s flagship competition and the ultimate in world football. Egypt was the first African country to take part in 1934 when they played one match in the preliminaries against Hungary which they lost 2-4. Morocco became the second African country in the finals in Mexico, 1970. They came last in Group 4 with one point after drawing 1-1 with Bulgaria but became the first African country to win a point in a World Cup. In the 1974 games, Congo (then Zaire) came last in their group failing to score a single goal but conceding 14 in three straight losses. In 1978 Tunisia became the first African team to win a game in a World Cup final when they beat Mexico 3-1. In 1982, Cameroon drew all her three matches but that didn’t give them a place in the next round. Algeria beat Germany 2-1 but was cheated of a place in the next round when an already qualified Austria contrived to lose 1 nil to Germany in their last match – just the goal margin needed to push Algeria to third place after the three teams finished with four points each. Algeria protested vehemently to FIFA without any results. Since then, the final group matches in all competitions are always played on the same day at the same time to prevent any team playing on the result of an already concluded match. 1986: Algeria came last in its group, but Morocco won its group to become the first African country to qualify from the group stage. It lost its round of 16 game to Germany, 1-0. 1990, Italy: Africa’s best performance so far with a quarterfinal place for Cameroon. Who can forget an ageless Roger Milla doing the makossa dance around the corner flag after his goals? 1994, USA: Africa now has three places. Nigeria won its group but lost its round of 16 game against eventual finalists, Italy. 1998, Africa now has five participants. The best African performer was, again, Nigeria, which won its group but lost 1-4 to Denmark in the knockout stage. Japan-South Korea 2002: Senegal was the only African team that went through from the group matches, squeezed past Sweden and lost to Turkey in a quarterfinal match they very well could have won. That was Africa’s second time best performance. Germany 2006: only Ghana went beyond the group stage but lost 0-3 to Brazil in the first knockout match. Despite (West) Africa’s fantastic performances at the youth level, we are still under-achievers at the senior level.

One can argue that it takes time for success at the youth level to translate into success at the senior level. But given our dominance at the youth level for such a long time, is it not about time we did better at the senior level? In world football, it is the senior World Cup that matters. You can win as many under 17 and under 20 trophies, if you don’t do well at the senior level, you are really no power in world football.

At youth level, physical strength makes a lot of difference and older players can be expected to be physically stronger than younger ones. These advantages decrease the older one becomes. It is an open secret that Africa’s successes have been due to their using over-aged players. Both Ghana and Nigeria have, at various times, been banned by FIFA for using over-aged players. It is easy to falsify all kinds of document in Africa. Cutting down ages is a very African thing to do. For our grandfathers, it was because many of them did not know their birth dates and when it came to picking an age for employment, one was more likely to cut down on it than add to it. The short retirement ages in Africa also increase the incentive to cut down on age. But today, everybody knows his date of birth. The cutting down of ages of football players is a very deliberate attempt to win undue advantage. Some of the rumours put some Nigerian under 17s as old as 31 years! On television, the boys really look smallish but every African can tell, when the cameras zoom in on them, that they are over 17. The Nigerian effort to clean up their act was not helped by their sacking of 15 players prior to the championships for being over-aged. Medical checks for age are a bit controversial. Ethical issues are involved. It is also reported that Gambia left behind its first team players fearing there would be age controls at the games. They left the tournament with only 1 point.

But the Europeans come to these tournaments with players their proper ages. It is difficult to fiddle the figures in Europe. In many European countries, football is organized according to year groups. Nobody can come up who is 25 years and say he is 17 when everybody has known the age group to which he belonged as a junior. Even though the Europeans are not winning these championships as often as we do, their young charges are benefiting more from the games than the already grown up Africans. They get the experience they need at the right biological age, grow up with it and become better players as adults. The Africans play these games when they are already at the upper ends of their development curves and do not become much better after these games.

The European and South American youngsters who shine at these games go on to greater things. Maradona got a red card in his side’s U-20 FIFA game in Japan 1979. The video of him making the sign of the cross as he left the field is well known. He later became the world’s best player and, arguably, the best footballer of all times! Some members of that team were in the side that won the World Cup in 1986. The Spanish side that won the U-20 championships in Nigeria in 1999 had players like Casillas, Gabri, Xavi who now form the backbone of the Spanish national side that won the European championships last year and went through the World Cup qualifiers without dropping a point. When Argentina won the U-20 in 2005 beating Nigeria in the finals, one Lionel Messi won the Golden boot award as the top goal scorer. Look at what Messi is doing now for Barcelona! And he is still only 22. If he had been Nigerian, he would still be featuring for his country’s U-17 team! As for Brazil, they won the U-17 thrice, the U-20 four times and the real World Cup five times! What have the Nigerians and the Ghanaians done with their successes at the youth level? They can’t even get to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Even as we worked ourselves into a delirium over the Satellites’ victory, there was still this niggling feeling that not all our boys are under the FIFA stipulated age limit. Some might have clipped off several months, if not years, from their true ages, with or without the active connivance of the authorities. The likes of André Ayew were born in Europe and there can be no doubt about their true ages. But the others? Nii Ordatey Lamptey was the top scorer when Ghana won the U-17 trophy for the first time in 1991. He was touted as Africa’s Maradona. But what became of him? Freddy Adu, in a different category has, so far, not blossomed into the star that everyone knew he would be. It is said that he has not had proper management that placed him in the right teams at the right times. But some observers believe that factor is not all there is to his story. Was he not born in Ghana? Now, they call him Freddy Adieu. I hope his time comes, though.

The use of over-aged players is doing a lot of harm to our senior game. It doesn’t give chance to the truly talented youngsters to develop. It is important that our football authorities do thorough background checks on all the boys reporting to take part in our junior games. The organisers of youth clubs should also take this very seriously when they register these players.

As I sat before my pregnant television set, watching Nigeria’s young adults mow down their supple, Lactogen baby European opponents which cheeky ease, I secretly longed for them to lose. But they were playing like adults and winning. I had the last laugh in the final match, though. The Swiss players are tall but their faces looked young. The Nigerians, though obviously much older, were smallish. In the end, that factor in which they couldn’t cheat (tall people are not necessarily good players) did them in as Haris Seferovic, the Zürich Grasshopper forward, born 22 February 1992 and a lengthy 1.85 meters tall, rose above his much older but diminutive opponents to head home from a corner-kick to clinch the tie for his side. Talk about poetic justice.

I am really looking forward to South Africa 2010. It will be the time for Africa to really announce its presence in world soccer. There will be no age limits and every country will come prepared with its very best players. Cameroon, making an African record sixth appearance, is not as indomitable as they were in the 1990s. They will be led by Eto’o who seems to have been around since the beginning of time. South Africa had a good team emerging from the apartheid years. Not anymore. Nigeria does not have a crack side. Algeria is so so... Africa’s hopes will be on Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. I just hope the vuvuzela will be banned so that the boys can hear each other on the pitch and the coach’s instructions shouted from the sidelines. Then we shall all, as one nation with one voice, be rooting for the Black Stars more than we ever did before. A quarterfinal for us is very desirable but a semi-final place will send all of us really crazy. And if we get to the final? Hey, ma bruda (oh, and ma sista too), don’t say…

Kofi Amenyo (kofi.amenyo@yahoo.com)