By Andrew Warshaw
October 23- The under-17 World Cup, the largest football event of its kind to be staged in the Gulf, may be progressing satisfactorily on the field but off it an inopportune dispute has broken out over the issue of over-age players — generated by the host nation.
FIFA have been quick to insist they are yet to receive any official complaint from the United Arab Emirates following a remarkable claim by the country’s coach Rashid Amir that 70 per cent of players participating in the tournament could be over age and therefore illegible.
“If you see the physical structure of most of the players in this competition, you are left to wonder how they are playing in this age group,” Amir declared following his side’s 6-1 thrashing to Brazil on Sunday, adding said he would be writing to Fifa.
However, a FIFA spokesman told local media that no complaint has yet been lodged and insisted that all 24 nations competing in the UAE had complied with their rigourous pre-tournament testing programme.
“We can inform you that since the final competition of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup UAE 2013 started, the Disciplinary Committee has not received any official complaints in the regard of players exceeding the age limit,” said the spokesman.
“MRI of the wrist is a simple, reliable, valid and non-invasive method for age determination in 14–19 year old male football players. The method is able to identify over-age players at U-17 competitions at no risk to the individual. Four randomly selected players per team have been tested in the UAE under the supervision of FIFA’s medical experts.”
The row represents an unfortunate departure from the positive spin placed by organisers on a tournament many observers are closely scrutinising given the proximity of Qatar, hosts of the 2022 World Cup.
Brazil coach Alexandre Gallo, for his part, said his side had complied with the rules. “We don’t have any overage players, we pay so much attention to that,” he said.
It now transpires that Amir’s comments might have been made in the heat of the moment. Ahead of Wednesday’s must-win game against Slovakia, he said he regretted his remarks.
“Whatever happened that evening, happened, whatever was said, was said,” he said. “It was just a moment of anger. I have apologised for it and everything is ok now as far as I am concerned.”
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