By NDINAWE SIMPELWE and GWEN CHIPASULA –
Zambia 3 Malawi 0
ZAMBIA’S impressive start at the ongoing COSAFA under-17 championship in Mauritius has been thrown in the mud with accusations of age-cheating from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF).
But the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has laughed off the accusations saying they had met the requirement asked by COSAFA and CAF before the kick off of the tournament.
Zambia beat Malawi 3-0 on Sunday to reach the semi finals with the player whose eligibility is being questioned by the KFK, Nicholas Mulilo scoring a goal to take his tally to three at the competition having scored a brace in the 4-0 win over Kenya.
KFK general secretary Robert Muthomi confirmed that the federation will lodge a formal protest against Zambia to COSAFA as they feel Zambian players are over-age.
Muthomi confirmed the intentions to protest officially on the federation’s official twitter account.
“Kenya will lodge a protest about Zambia fielding an over-age player in our 4-0 loss on Friday at the COSAFA U17 championship in Mauritius.” Muthomi tweeted.
Africa’s youth tournaments have been characterised by cases of age cheating in the past with some countries being banned for the offences but Zambia has never been a culprit.
However FAZ committee member in charge of youth, Kabaso Kapambwe said the allegations were unfounded because the associations took the necessary precautions to select the team.
Kapambwe said Kenya had no base for their allegations against Mulilo because documents show the player is under 17 years despite his physical features.
He said FAZ is building a team for the 2018 Under-20 Africa Youth Championship adding that most of the players in the current Under-17 setup were lined up for the tournament.
“What is their basis for the allegations? Physical looks and age are different. Kenya should see how the South African and Seychelles players look, they look very big but it doesn’t mean they are over-age.
“Kenya made a lot of noise just before the kick off of that match. But for us we are preparing this team for the Under-20 tournament, so we picked the right age and the MRI scans can prove that. But we will wait until they lodge in a formal complaint,” Kapambwe said.
Meanwhile, Zambia remained on course to defend the title after beating Malawi in the group’s second matches with Damiano Kola going past defenders to score in the sixth minute before Benjamin Phiri scored via a free-kick 10 minute later and Mulilo on target in the 74th minute.
“It feels great to win a second game and I am happy with the result.
It is very motivating for the team because we now know how to handle the qualifiers,” coach Oswald Mutapa Junior said in an interview from Mauritius.
Mutapa did not want to be bothered with the protest saying all the players were asserted eligible for the tournament by the doctors during the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan.
“No one can assert the players but the doctors themselves. And they did that before the team came to this tournament. So we shall not comment or focus much on that because we are here to compete and that is what we are doing,” Mutapa said.
Zambia plays pointless Madagascar tomorrow to cement Group B ahead of Malawi on three points together with Kenya.