Nabbed!: How Ghana has found itself in hot waters

It seems a classic illustration of the scenario of the thief who had always had his way until, on one occasion, he got nabbed by the 'master'.

After years - nay, decades - of informally alleged dubious practices with regard to presenting footballers for age-category competitions, Ghana, a giant in continental and global youth football, has had its cup brimming - and it's not a very pretty picture whichever way you look at it.

It isn't entirely out of the blue, either. Over the years, Ghana has presented players who, even to the untrained eye, appear way older than the ages indicated in their passports. Finally, though, the Confederation of African Football - upon the persistence of sore losers Cameroun (who prompted these investigations after being outwitted by Ghana's Black Starlets for a place at next year's African U17 Championship) - seems to have managed to prove what many had suspected all along.

You're shocked, right?

Well, we at Goal aren't.

Earlier this year, in an article hailing Caf for succesfully nabbing and banning Gambia after the country fielded as many as five players in an African U20 Championship qualifier against Liberia, this writer pointed out what warning signs that precedent held out for the likes of Ghana and Nigeria - countries whose many succesesses at junior level, according to popular opinion, had largely been built on the back of consistently breaching age limits with sheer impunity.

"It is an open secret that Ghana and Nigeria have always stocked their junior national teams with players whose actual ages shoot right through the roof," the aforementioned write-up noted.

The article went even further to recommend that Caf go the extra mile to make lessons of nations bigger than tiny Gambia and, just five months later, the governing body's trap is already bulging accordingly.

The Ghana Football Association, on Sunday evening, acknowledged on its official website receipt of Caf's letter to the effect that the country's U17s have, per existing regulations, been disqualified from next year's tournament after one of seven players marked for scrutiny by the aggrieved Camerounians had been nailed by medical examination procedures.

"The Ghana Football Association confirms receipt of a letter from CAF disqualifying the National U-17 team, the Black Starlets from the U-17 Championship to be played in Niger in 2015 after upholding the opinion of its Medical Committee on the eligibility of one of the [seven identifieds] players," a story on ghanafa.org read.

Continuing, it noted that "CAF wrote to the GFA on Saturday claiming the analysis of the MRI report from a Medical Centre in Ghana contradicts the analysis of two CAF medical experts on the eligibility of one of the players."

Even worse, Paa Kwesi Fabin's charges wouldn't be the only victims of Caf's disciplinary action. Paragraph 2 of Article 37 of the same set of regulations that has the Starlets hammered could endanger the future of Ghana's U20s and U23s, all of whom have major international assignments coming up.

It states: "For any administrative error in the matter of the players’ registration or date of birth without deliberate intention, the concerned association shall be suspended for two years from all the age category competitions of CAF."

Clear, simple, and brutal - but only effective if Caf intend to apply the rules to the letter.

And why shouldn't they? Scapegoats don't come any bigger than this.

The GFA, on the other hand, should shelve any plans of appealling Caf's judgment, really; whatever Ghana is getting - however severe, far-reaching, and 'unfair' - the country deserves it. It has been long overdue, hasn't it?

We should swallow it whole and in good faith, as it is a pill that could cure our game of arguably its greatest malaise.