NATIONAL7Spotlight Weekly)]

Age-Old Problem

Nepal faces an embarrassing suspension from the next Under-16 youth championship for using over-aged players

By SANJAYA DHAKAL

It was the most loosely guarded secret of Nepalese football. Be it in the Under 16 or the Under 19 tournaments, many players representing Nepal did so by concealing their actual age. As many other countries apart from Nepal fielded similarly over-aged players, the mutual silence had helped persist this anomaly with impunity.

But with the sudden decision by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) to ban five nations including Nepal, Iran, Oman, Thailand and Bangladesh for playing over-aged players during last yearís Under-16 Asian football championship held in Vietnam, the football officials here have been caught with their pants down. The silence has been broken.

Nepalese players : Victims of irresponsible administration

"Yes, it is proved that Nepal fielded over-aged players as then All Nepal Football Association (ANFA) led by Ganesh Thapa failed to submit the required X-ray reports verifying the age of the players to the AFC," said Geeta Rana, the president of the National Sports Council-recognized ANFA interim committee.

Unfortunately, the decision is going to bar Nepal from participating in the next U-16 youth championship that will be held in Qatar in 2003.

Bikesh Shrestha, of the Nepal Football Fan Club (NFFC) says that after years of chronic cheating, the ANFA finally had to pay the price.

"The Nepal Football Fan Club (NFFC) welcomes the AFC's ruling hoping that it will once and for all stop the All Nepal Football Association's continual charade of fielding over aged players," reads the statement by the club.

Even the football officials admit that they have used over-aged players. "The use of over-aged players is rampant. The recent AFC action only proves it," said a football player.

"In the last few years, Nepal often had had embarrassing encounters in its attempts to field over-aged players. In the Olympic qualifiers Nepal was nearly thrown out as our players could not present proper passports in Hong Kong. A similar incident happened in Bangladesh during the under-19 qualifiers. Complaints had also been made by teams

who played against Nepal in the last two under-16 qualification tournaments regarding the ages of the Nepali players. It is also open knowledge in Nepal that we field over-age players as players who have been playing club football for five or six years make our youth teams which means that they must have started playing at club level at the age of 10 or 11," charges the clubís statement.

Although the AFCís actions are justified, it will be a serious setback to Nepalese players as well as fans who will have to bear the brunt because of the irresponsible behavior by the authorities.

"There were high hopes for the next Asian Youth Championship because many of the ANFA Academy trainees would have been of the participating age then. Several football clubs, too, had started youth academies and thus Nepal's suspension will come as a blow to them and their players who were hopeful of making the national under-16 team. The NFFC calls on ANFA not to even ponder, as we know that they will, fielding the current

crop of under 16 ANFA Academy players in the 2003 edition of the tournament, as by that time they will be under-19 players," further reads the statement by the NFFC.

Meanwhile, the AFCís decision has sent a chill down the spine of unassuming Nepalese football authorities. "Definitely, we are going to be more aware of this problem. We will be keeping a strict vigil regarding the age of our players from now onwards," said Rana.

According to Rana, the problem here is the lack of system of keeping records of individual players. If the record of each and every individual is kept and the practice of playing age-wise tournament is developed, this problem could be checked. It remains to be seen whether the Nepalese sports authorities will take the current AFC decision as a lesson.