The ManicaPost
AGE cheating in junior and schools sports tournaments is still a major challenge that will only be solved by acquisition of age verification technology, National Association of Secondary Heads (NASH) head in charge for soccer Albert Mucheka has said.
The desire to win inter-schools sports competitions has resulted in some schools fielding athletes that are over the prescribed age group and the annual Copa Coca-Cola tournament has not been spared.
Age cheating has been a major challenge, not only for Zimbabwe, but the entire continent and it has resulted in some junior football teams in Africa excelling, but the same generation of athletes later fail dismally when competing at international senior level.
In an interview on the sidelines of last Friday’s Copa Coca-Cola provincial finals at Mutare Boys’ High, Mucheka conceded that age cheating was still one of their main challenges in the 26-year-old schools soccer competition.
He acknowledged the inaccuracies of the physical vetting system saying it is unfair for some athletes who have big frames.
“Just like in the past, we have experienced some challenges this year in the Copa Coca-Cola tournament, but one of the major challenges is that of age cheating.
“This has been a cancer that always comes as a result of the desire to win. Every year we have had to disqualify some players. It has always been a challenge here in Zimbabwe and also in most parts of Africa.
“The only way that we can solve this once and for all is through the use of age verification technology.
“All along even up until this day, we rely on physical vetting and national identity documents, but these can be manipulated. We have also made use of the youngsters themselves because in some cases they know each other.
“However, there are some inaccuracies in all these methods of vetting.
“We wish we could have technological age verification machinery that would help us in determining the ages of participants,” he said.
