I didn’t know whether to laugh or weep as I read what I would describe as THE CONFESSIONS OF A FOOTBALL CHEAT. Of course, I’m referring to the bombshell dropped by a member of Ghana’s 1991 Black Starlets who made history by winning the country’s first FIFA World Cup for players aged below 17 years.
Yaw Preko, who played for Accra Hearts of Oak and the senior national team, the Black Stars, was reported to have said in an interview with an Accra radio station that he and his fellow world champions were above the age limit set for the competition 21 years ago. He didn’t stop there and went on to suggest that cheating has been widespread in FIFA age competitions with African, Asian and South American nations guilty of that misdemeanor, if one can call it that.
I’m told what sparked Preko’s outburst was the mass failure of players who were made to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) test which the soccer governing body has introduced to curtail the alarming incidence of cheating which was systematically destroying the credibility and essence of FIFA-organized age competitions. As the story goes, as many as 17 players, who were hoping to be part of the present generation of Black Starlets, were exposed by the test as being over-aged.
The story itself might not have made any serious waves, if it had not come from the horse’s own mouth, as the cliché goes. But, would the fact that Preko is insisting that he is now 37, which means he was 17 some 20 years ago, make any difference? Perhaps, he was the odd man (or better still boy) out.
However, the fact remains that cheating in most age competitions has long been known to be part and parcel of the game in our part of the world and places referred to by Preko, who is now a coach. Those of you readers old enough to have read this column from its origins might remember that several articles were devoted to that topic. Without putting it as bluntly as Yaw Preko has just done, the column made some snide remarks, which almost said the same thing. That approach was, of course, influenced by the adage that not every truth requires expression.
Only heaven knows what harm that practice has inflicted on the development of the game in Ghana and other countries which have perfected age cheating at the juvenile and youth levels into an art form. Some of the people at head of the game, coaches and administrators alike, preferred to revel in those pyrrhic victories and false glory and didn’t care one hoot about the long-term effects.
Gradually, for some of us, the age competitions lost their meaning and essence. It might have been the same realization which eventually influenced FIFA’s decision to introduce such measures as bone-testing and MRi, which has sparked the current controversy. It will be recalled that quite recently Nigeria had to drop almost half of her squad after a similar MRI test. So, Ghana is only following suit.
A question we should be asking ourselves is why is it that Ghana has consistently failed to qualify for U-17 tournaments ever since a deliberate attempt was made to field players with the right ages or something close to reality. To tell the truth, I have personally never given a thought to that failure. Indeed, I think it is better to do the right thing than to use dubious, shady means to court success which might prove harmful in the long run. To tell the truth, I have lost complete and faith in those competitions and what happens during those tournaments have ceased to excite me. I have looked on them as a mere charade.
But what perhaps makes Preko’s statements a bit more disturbing is that he accuses the FA and the then team officials of complicity. Indeed, he is emphatic that they were made to reduce their ages. And if that isn’t a serious allegation, then I don’t know what else qualifies as such. Of course, the chairman of the FA then, Awuah Nyamekye has come out to strongly deny that assertion, insisting that it was the responsibility of parents to provide the ages of their sons, not the FA.
My prayer is that the brouhaha doesn’t go beyond our borders, which might remain a forlorn hope, given that in this age of the internet which has made the world a global village, such an issue can hardly be contained within. My hope really is that there might be a statute of limitations in the FIFA regulations, which would make it impossible for the soccer governing body to go back into a 20-year old issue.
Otherwise, if an Italian-style investigation, which has of late been digging dirt in that country’s domestic football in the wake of match-fixing and bribery scandals is instituted, there will be hell to pay. For, as the saying goes, truth, like a cork in water, cannot be submerged forever or for too long. It will certainly pop up sooner than later and the consequences in the case under reference can only be disastrous for Ghana soccer, not to talk about the country’s reputation and image.
Apart from the possibility of being stripped of the 1992 title as world U-17 champions, other punitive sanctions might follow. As a patriot, all I can hope for is that this storm should pass as quickly as possible, without leaving any damaging debris behind. Let’s all go down on our knees and pray that the great Father upstairs will have mercy on Ghana soccer.
