[Sport] Cameroon ejected 32 players for failing age tests for a soccer tournament. How Samuel Eto’o is dealing with ‘age cheating’

[REFLX]

It’s been a problem for the ages but Cameroonian soccer great Samuel Eto’o appears determined to stamp it out.

Cameroon sealed its qualification for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations’ Under-17s tournament with a 2-0 win against the Republic of Congo 2-0 on January 15, but the squad which won that match was unrecognizable from the one initially selected for the event.

That’s because 21 players of the 30-man original group were disqualified for failing age eligibility tests following MRI scans to determine bone age and then ejected from the team, according to BBC Sport.

To make matters worse, 11 of the replacements drafted into the squad also failed tests and were too old to play in the qualifiers.

The ejection of those players followed Cameroon Football Association (FECAFOOT) President Eto’o’s decision to test players ahead of the competition.

“These players rely on football and most of them come from poor families and backgrounds,” Cameroonian journalist Giovanni Wanneh told CNN Sports, explaining why the players involved would have attempted to falsify their ages.

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