South Sudan’s Football Association said it is investigating the circumstances under which the U17 national team was disqualified from the ongoing African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has kicked South Sudan out of the U-17 Nations Cup holding in Algeria over age falsification after five players in the Bright Star Juniors squad failed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) had recently amended regulations regarding MRI.
The part that indicates that the entire team will be disqualified if one player fails the MRI test has been amended and the law now states that the team will be disqualified if four or more players fail the test.
South Sudan was in Group C with Cameroon, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
The tournament is expected to end on May 19, 2023.
Speaking at a press conference in Juba on Thursday, Michael Daniel, Chairman of the National Teams Committee at the South Sudan Football Association and head of the South Sudan U-17 team delegation that had travelled to Algeria, explained that the tests had shown that two players had failed to pass the MRI tests even though they had participated in a tournament organized by the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA), which was hosted by Ethiopia last September.
He pointed out that he did not understand the reasons for their failure to pass the tests because the players were born in 2006 and 2008 respectively.
Victor Lawrence, secretary of the South Sudan Football Association, said the MRI tests were carried out at the Juba Medical Complex because it was the only hospital with the equipment to carry out the tests.
He explained that the Association does not have enough financial resources to purchase this equipment, saying they do not doubt the test results as the health facility had carried similar tests before.
Victor noted that the national team players that were to participate in the U-17 African Cup of Nations in Algeria included 14 players who participated with the national team in the recent CECAFA tournament in Ethiopia.
He underscored that what happened was not the South Sudan football association’s fault but rather a medical error. He instated that they followed all the right procedures, pointing out that they will follow up on the issue in order to find out what happened exactly.
For his part, Remo James, the doctor of the South Sudan U-17 team, gave a detailed explanation of the nature of the tests and the way in which the age is determined, saying there are five stages during which players are classified in order to determine their eligibility to participate in the tournament.
“We have got a very specialized hospital and experienced doctors who did the examination of the players as requested by the CAF,” James said.” MRI tests were also carried out at the Juba Medical Complex and the results were then taken to the United Kingdom.”
The football association has resolved to form a committee headed by the body’s vice president Charles Odwar, with the membership of George Costa, Anna Nyakuet, Dr. Sally Samuel and Gabriel Daniel, in order to investigate the matter.