Age cheating rears ugly head at Copa CocaCola Norman Mapeza
mapeza

Norman Mapeza

Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
AGE-CHEATING in the boys’ category once again was topical at the Copa CocaCola National Association of Secondary School Heads (Nash) football tournament which ended in Harare on Sunday.Chemhanza High School of Wedza in Mashonaland East successfully defended the boys’ Under-16 competition which they won at last year’s finals in Mutare after beating Harare’s Oriel Boys High 2-0 in the final.

The 25th boys’ Copa CocaCola edition winners got their goals from Chiwerenga twins, Manuel and Tafadzwa.

On their way to the final Chemhanza beat Mutare 1-0 in the quarter-finals and went on to knock out Bulawayo’s representatives Mzilikazi by an identical scoreline in the semi-finals while Oriel needed a penalty shootout in the quarter-finals and last four against Churchill and Mkondwa to sail through to the final.

Mzilikazi who were making a return to the national finals after a long absence, won the Fair Play award which according to judges was given to the team with the least number of yellow cards and had used right aged players who were not excluded from the tournament.

They went on to lose the third place play off 1-0 to Mkondwa who shocked many as they had 11 of their players ruled out of the tournament during the vetting exercise and won bronze with nine players who included a goalkeeper from the group stages.

Mkondwa’s players ability to withstand the demands of the game from the first round won them many sympathisers.

What became clear was that Nash are struggling to combat age-cheating which even annoyed former Warriors coach Norman Mapeza, ex-DeMbare star Tonderai Ndiraya and coaches association’s Bheki Nyoni among football experts and former players that watched the games.

“That is why we will struggle as a nation to win international competitions because from what I am seeing here some of the boys are too mature to be Under-16 and if these are their correct ages then there is real talent. However, you must note that some PSL players fail to make diagonal passes but some do it with ease here, the decisions that they make while they are in possession or on the offensive makes one question the exact age of these youngsters,” said Mapeza.

The former Warriors captain who also turned out for Turkey top flight side Galatasaray said he is into talent development and coaches pupils at a Group A school in Harare.

“At this stage (Nash competitions), as much as it is about competing, it is development and nurturing of talent that should be the winner. By using overaged players we are defying the purpose of developing talent as we are channeling resources to youngsters who have already passed that stage of nurturing,” said Ndiraya.

Nyoni, the Zimbabwe Soccer Coaches Association chairman said it is high time Nash makes it compulsory to randomly pick players from each school to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI scan) to determine the ages of the participants.

“We are grateful to have sponsors like CocaCola who are putting in a substantial amount to the development of our soccer players. Surely, I don’t think if approached properly they will refuse to help in eradicating age cheats. I believe if Nash says everyone has to go through the MRI scan because that is the only scientific way to prove one’s age, and if they discover that one of the players has failed that school has to be kicked out of the tournament and fined heavily. You will discover that in due course schools will bring correct aged players,” said Nyoni.

Meanwhile, just like Chemhanza, Chidyamakono of Masvingo who won last year’s tournament successfully defended their title in the girls’ category after beating St Francis 1-0 in the final courtesy of a strike by Primrose Musiiwa.

 

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