Jongwe speaks on age-cheating

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIFA are embarking on an exercise to capture data of every school children and youths playing in academies so that every player will have a traceable record dating back from his or her primary school days.

This is meant to curb age cheating.

ZIFA technical director, Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe, said they are rolling out the programme with the close support of National Association of Secondary School Heads and National Association of Primary School Heads.

“We have noticed over the years that there is a lot of age cheating so we want to capture data for all children who will kick the ball from primary schools as well as academies and hope that card would be updated as we don’t want a scenario where someone just wakes up playing for the national Under-20 team without any traceable history.

“We understand that some children play football in schools and some in academies. All the headmasters are commissioners and we will feed into that system.

“For example, a kid playing football at Musami Primary School, there should be a record with his or her data being captured at that level and even if, two years later, he or she moves to Murewa Mission, the information would be upgraded on the licence.

“We are saying that by the time he or she plays for the national team age groups, there should be a record for a soccer athlete.

“These are rare cases like Nyasha Mushekwi who was coming from a basketball background and started to play soccer at a senior level,” he said.

Jongwe said everyone needed to play a part to curb age cheating.

“This is a cancer which has suffocated our football and needs everyone’s support from the teachers, parents, relatives to club officials to understand that children develop within their age-group.

“I have noticed that we are all guilty as a nation.

“It might not be rampant in primary schools but it becomes a problem when schools start to compete.

“We have the wrong notion that over aged players are good but that is temporary as eventually it will catch up with an athlete.

“An athlete should be left to develop at the correct age and it helps in the long run,” he said.

The former CAPS United coach said at Africa Union Zone Five Games held in Bulawayo in December, they just said all the players who had acquired a birth certificate in the last four years were not eligible for the national Under-17 soccer team.

“It was not fool-proof but it was just a way of saying we were not going to take a child who would have a birth certificate which is less than four years old,” said Jongwe.