'Ghana can never win an U17 title again'

Veteran Ghanaian football administrator, Abbey Pobey claims the country can never win a title at the Under-17 level following the introduction of the MRI age-cheating test.

The Black Starlets recorded their worst defeat at the junior level in the country’s rich footballing history when they were hammered 6-1 by perennial rivals Nigeria in their opening match at the ongoing African Under-17 Championship in Morocco.

The Ghanaians were completely dazed by Nigeria who recorded their heaviest win over their opponent at the junior level in Marrakesh.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) conducted an MRI test on all the players of the eight teams before the start of the championship.

Nine players including three Nigerians, three Ivorians and three Congolese failed to beat technology.

However a depleted Nigerian side was too hot for the Ghanaians to handle and the Neoplan Stars owner claims the country will struggle to win any title on the continent with the introduction of the age-cheating test.

“We shouldn’t tickle ourselves and laugh. I am saying that we can never win any title if we use the right ages,” Pobey claimed on Happy FM.

“We have to understand that we have cheated at the U17 level for many years and we must now adjust to the new system.

“It’s a good start for us. We should look at the growth of the players and expects to win titles at the senior level but never at the junior level.

“Take it from me we can never win the U17 again if we don’t cheat. I wasn’t surprise we lost to Nigeria.

“My only disappointment was that we lost by that humiliating margin. But the truth of the matter is that if we use our right ages, we can never win.

“I think Ghanaians should get use to that so we can continue to focus on building on their talents for future prospects,” he said.

CAF introduced the MRI test ahead of the start of this year’s competition in order to combat the widespread issue of age-cheating.

The competition which has been thought to contain over- aged players for many years is now separating ‘the chaff from the wheat’ by employing the use of a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to scan the wrist of the players thereby determining the bone density.

The Black Starlets face Congo in a must-win second game on Wednesday.