17 February, 2021 (SALONE TIMES)
FREETOWN – Sierra Leone’s National U-17 male team lost their two group stage matches against Guinea Bissau 1-0 and Mali 5-0 in Senegal.
The above WAFU U-17 tournament was scheduled earlier to be hosted in Sierra Leone but was later taken to Senegal due to Sierra Leone’s lack of standard MRI standard test machine.
Despite WAFU disqualifying the test machine at ECOMed, the team went on to do their first test there. After the test at ECOMed, they took the players back to Guinea to do another test.
Sources from Guinea claimed that it was the same hospital that Guinea did their own test and ended up facing CAF’s ban.
According to the rules of the tournament, if a single player is tested above the age of 17, they will ban the whole team for two tournaments.
The youth tournament takes place after every two years and if any player fails the test, the team will face ban for four years.
When the team reached Senegal, they did the official test and played their two group stage matches before the result was out.
After the two matches, the FA said they received a correspondent from the organizers dated 9th February 2021, communicating a decision from CAF that Sierra Leone has been disqualified from the CAF U-17 tournament due to non-eligibility of some players.
According to sources at Senegal, 9 players failed the MRI test in Senegal.
The Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), despite the above letter stated they were going to sought out for clarification into the matter and they were waiting for the final result of the test conducted by CAF in Senegal.
But when the result later stated that 9 players failed the test, the FA has not come out with any statement yet.
The decision now stands that Sierra Leone will face four years ban from the tournament with all the money they spent on the two tests which have gone in vain, yet nobody has taken responsibility for that.
The team started the preparation by travelling to Liberia to play friendly matches against the Liberia U-17 national team and against some clubs in Liberia and won all matches played.
Back home they were camped together and played series of friendly matches for which they won all with over 83 goals scored.
But before going to Senegal, some of the players who travelled to Liberia were dropped back home when they were tested above the age limit.
Some football lovers said the FA should have decided to go and do the test at the official place in Senegal instead of doing it in Guinea before the CAF test.
