By Andrew Warshaw
May 5 – The Gambia, one of Africa’s smallest countries, has been banned from all international competition for two years for fielding no fewer than five over-age players in a qualifier for the Continent’s under-20 Championship.
On April 20, the country was initially disqualified from the same competition but that has now been extended, meaning Gambian clubs will also be banned from playing in the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF) continental competitions.
CAF said its executive committee took the decision last week after the under-20 side was found to have falsified player documents. CAF found that all five players were born no later than 1994 and were therefore ineligible to play in the qualifying game against Liberia on April 6. One of the players, forward Ali Sowe of Italian club Chievo, could be as old as 25, CAF said, after it discovered records from a 2012 club competition that showed his date of birth on his passport as Oct. 14, 1988.
Gambia won the Liberia match 1-0 before the result was annulled and the tie awarded to the Liberians. Only players born from 1995 onwards can play in the competition.
Most painfully of all, the ban means Gambia’s senior team will be unable to take part in qualifying for the 2015 African Cup of Nations, a huge blow for a football-mad nation that was due to play Seychelles later this month in a first-round preliminary game. The Seychelles now automatically go through to meet the winners of the tie between Swaziland and Sierra Leone for the right to join Cameroon, DR Congo and Ivory Coast in Group D of the qualifying group phase.
Although Gambia have never been to a World Cup or any major tournament, they have had considerable success at youth level, winning the 2005 and 2009 African under-17 championships.
Contact the writer of this story at andrew.warshaw@insideworldfootball,com