India is preparing itself to embrace the footballing revolution that is about to hit the nation in a few days time, and while all stakeholders are in high spirits before the FIFA U-17 World Cup, one major controversy has hit the Indian team just before the start of the event.
Reportedly one of the players has been found to be overage after the Magnetic Resonance Imaging tests that were conducted by the All India Football Federation a week back
September 21 was the deadline of registering the players and the AIFF had conducted the test 2 days prior to the last day. All players except one passed the MRI test.
The Indian coach Luis Norton de Matos will now be forced to make a change to his side, as the late test and its result are sure to hamper his plans.
Interestingly when the AIFF has conducted the MRI tests 6 months ago all the players were cleared.
“When the MRI was done, it showed complete fusion of the player’s wrist. Doctors said he had registered a Grade 6, which means he was considered older than 17. FIFA rules also stipulate that if you register a Grade 6, you are not allowed to participate,” said the official.
Rules regarding age state that all players participating in the FIFA U-17 World Cup need to be a maximum of 17 years old by the end of this calendar year. Players who are born on or after January 1, 2000 are eligible to participate.
FIFA will be conducting random tests during the tournament to confirm the age of the players and anyone found overage would be ousted from the tournament immediately and the erring nation would be severely punished.
Hopefully the Indian team can recover from this setback and get a suitable replacement in place for the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
