All the players taking part in the football competition at the TotalEnergies CAF Under-17
Africa Cup of Nations 2026 COSAFA Qualifier in Harare, Zimbabwe, starting on Thursday will undergo Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) assessments to confirm their eligibility to compete.
It is a process that has been in place for some years now and leading sports physician Dr
Thulani Ngwenya, who is vice-president of the CAF Medical Commission and COSAFA
Medical Officer, has previously spearheaded it in the region.
Dr Ngwenya is a leading expert on the African continent and has vast experience in this
field.
The tests are used to ensure the players are within the required birth date range for the
competition, which starts from January 1, 2009, and follows the ineligibility of four sides
from the COSAFA Qualifiers for TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2021.
Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini and Zimbabwe were all excluded from the competition in
2020 after one or more players failed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) assessment. Dr Ngwenya has previously explained the importance of the tests for boys.
“MRI is a FIFA-approved method used to determine eligibility to play in the Under-17 age group,” Dr Ngwenya said.
“The images are taken on the non-dominant wrist, which is usually the left hand. The image takes about nine ‘slices’ of the growth plate.
“There are different stages of grading the growth plate, from 1 to 6. Grade 6 is the last stage where the growth plate is completely fused.
“For the purpose of Under-17 tournaments, everyone who is a Grade 6 is therefore deemed ineligible to participate in this age group category. The Confederation of African Football introduced this method to make our sport a fair and level playing field.”
Dr Ngwenya is quick to point out that a Grade 6 result does not necessarily mean a player is ‘over-age’. “This is an eligibility assessment, not an age determination assessment,” he stressed.
There have also been questions as to why the MRI tests are conducted on boys only, and
not those competitors in the girls’ Under-17 competitions.
“Girls have a natural situation of a menstrual cycle that really affects the development of
their bones and directly affects their bone density,” he explains.
CAF Medical Manager Dr Sidiki Boubakary explains how the introduction of the MRI tests for the continental finals has seen a reduction in eligibility cases.
“As per the statistics, we move from 7% (2018/19 edition) of ineligibility to below 1%
(2022/23 edition),” Dr Sidiki told CAFOnline. “We never see overage players in the U17
category. Now, we are having a truly U17 boys playing.
“In Africa, we have our own realities that are different from those of some confederations
such as UEFA. To give these young boys the chance to compete with players in the same
category as them, we must continue with this MRI protocol.
“And even provide a protocol for the upstream and downstream categories (U15 and U20) to achieve traceability leading to young and competitive players in senior categories.”
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