Over-age players a big worry for organisers

Whenever the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) hosts a junior championship at any venue in the continent, the biggest worry for the organisers and teams has been the problem of over - age players.

These players have dominated the Asian junior tournaments for years creating a lack of confidence between the participants on one side and between the AFC and its members on the other.

The 10th Asian Under 17 Championship is scheduled to kick off at the Al Nahyan Stadium in Al Wahda Club here tomorrow with the participation of 12 teams.

The indications are clear that the meeting of the tournament technical committee, which will be attended by Dato Peter Velappan the AFC secretary general will be dominated by protests, objections and accusations following the AFC's suspension to five Yemeni players only last week.

These players refused to undergo X-ray tests in Jordan after it was alleged that they were overage in the qualifiers of the Asian first group preliminary that also featured Kuwait, Palestine and Bahrain.

The incident took place when Bahrain and Kuwait protested to the AFC about the age of some Yemeni players who had won their group games in Sanaa.

They won three matches, scoring nine goals and conceding one to collect nine points followed by Bahrain with four points in second place. Yemen, in a counter protest accused some players from both teams of being overage.

The AFC directed the FA's of all three countries to send certain players to Amman in Jordan to undergo x-ray tests to determine their age. The tests were supervised Dr. Gurucharan Singh, the member of the AFC Medical Committee, and tournament commissioner Yousuf Hussain.

The players from Bahrain and Kuwait turned up for the examinations as directed but Yemen did not send their players. This followed a suspension by the AFC on five Yemeni players.

The players suspended were Ismail Mohammed Ali, Abdulla Mohammed, Fouad Abdo, Ismat Esam and Mohammed Hassan who will not be replaced for the tournament.

It was this decision which angered the Bahraini and Kuwaiti officials because the AFC punished the players and forgave the Yemen FA by letting them take part in the finals instead of ruling them out of the competition and replacing them with a second team as in the case of Tajikistan who were replaced by Pakistan after FIFA suspended them from international football last month.

The doubts in today's meeting over the eligibility of the players will be stirred by the fact that most, if not all, passports of the players in each team are issued on the same day.

The Yemeni players, for example all received their passports on June 2, 2002. The Pakistani players had their passports issued either in May or in August.

Commenting on the suspensions of the five Yemeni players Velappan said, "In the interests of Fair Play, we are thus forced to bar five players who have been included in the team (of Yemen) to the final competition in the UAE.

"The action is also being taken to remind the Yemeni Football Association of the need to respect rules and regulations governing the competitions as well as the AFC statutes."

It is expected that further actions could be taken against the Yemen FA by the AFC Disciplinary Committee.