Concord Times (Freetown)
Sahr Morris Jnr.
16 September 2008
The technical team of the Sierra Leone U-17 side, Sierra Stars has accused the Gambia Football Association of cheating citing the fielding of over-aged players in both legs of their Africa U-17 Championship qualifiers.
After the first leg encounter in Banjul, the technical team claimed Baby Scorpions strikers Ebrima Bojang and Lamin Samateh were over-aged. In the second leg in Freetown, they also made the same claim about Matarr Jobe and Babucarr Janneh.
But Baby Scorpions' team manager, Abdoulie Bangura rejected the claims saying the Sierra Leone football authorities are just bitter over their team's elimination.
Bangura was quoted in one of The Gambia's daily as saying, "The allegations made against our players are false. We don't cheat in any competition we enter and we'll never cheat. The players in question are eligible to play because they are within the age bracket." "The Sierra Leone team officials want their fans to take their minds off the bitter defeat they suffered from us," said Bangura.
According to sources, the Sierra Stars' technical team has presented the case before the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) which has, in turn, forwarded a complaint to Africa's football governing body, CAF.
Though all parties await CAF response to SLFA's claim, The Gambians would face Ghana in the next round of the qualifiers if the four players are cleared by CAF.
Baby Scorpions eliminated Sierra Stars after winning their two encounters - 4:1 in Banjul and 3:0 in Freetown. Thus, they have progressed to the next stage with a convincing 7-1 win on aggregate.
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Hey "me famble na Salone" don't be bad losers. First you stated the match officials from Bissau came on the same plane with the Baby scorpion, but it seems the 3 - 0 is so convincing a win that match officials could not be blamed. Now you have to look another excuse which is even more difficult to proof. Move on please because this is bad taste for sportsmanship.