East African Business Week (Kampala)
John David
27 August 2007
Nairobi — The inaugural CECAFA under-17 youth soccer tournament staged in Burundi last week did not escape the shame of age-cheating.
The practise rocked the competitions and threatened to halt proceedings after several teams contemplated withdrawing in protest.
The incident seemed to have put paid to CECAFA's efforts to stamp out the vice from its organised events, following its earlier announcement that it had put in place stringent measures that would ensure over-age players were locked out of the games.
Several ineligible players, however, found their way into the youth championships only to be identified later on after the damage had been done.
CECAFA failed to detect the discrepancies earlier until the matter was brought to the fore when other participating teams cried foul. Hosts Burundi happened to be the main culprits after being found guilty of fielding five over-age players forcing the organisers to crack the whip.
The result saw five of the team's key players disqualified and a fine slapped on Burundi for the offence. The incident came after Burundi had crashed Tanzania 3 - 1 in the opening tie.
The Tanzania Football Federation's pursuit of also garnering the three points from the game went up in smoke after CECAFA rejected its appeal.
Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania are among the countries who blew the whistle after testing defeat thanks to the generosity of their opponents whom they claimed had over-age players.
Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye termed the incidents as unfortunate and called on member countries to observe the rules of the tournament.
"It is unfortunate that our members want to employ devious means to win enable them win. We want them to know that we are going to act tougher if that is what it will take to tame this vice," Mr Musonye told reporters in the Burundi capital, Bujumbura last week.
Another incident that blighted the event was the 'bad' behaviour that was exhibited by Tanzania head coach Marcos Tinoco.
Tinoco had engineered a plot of discouraging his team from taking to the field in its subsequent games in the tournament soon after its defeat to Burundi, the tournament hosts.
This prompted CECAFA to call for disciplinary action against the Brazilian-born coach. His action was seen as an act that would have brought the game into disrepute.
"Despite the few problems we had with the Burundi national team and our decision to disqualify five of their players after their match against Tanzania, your coach became more unsporting and deliberately incited his players not to honour their subsequent two fixtures," Musonye said.
The tournament, sponsored by Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete, unearthed a vast of soccer talent from the region's youthful teams.
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