BOTSWANA will protest to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) over Zambia’s alleged use of over-age players during Saturday’s 2015 Niger Africa Junior Championship second round match.
Zambia edged Botswana 1-0 at Lusaka’s Sunset Stadium in Lusaka.
Botswana coach Odirile China Matlhaku said in a post-match interview that the junior Chipolopolo has over-age players.
Matlhaku said Botswana will lodge a formal complaint to CAF at a right time.
“Zambia used over-age players and this will surely show at the right time. I have worked with developmental teams for a long time and I can tell if a player is over-age. And the body frame of Zambian players is not the same as Tswanas and just by looking at them, I could tell that they are not the right age,” he said.
Matlhaku, however, said his team’s defeat cannot be attributed to alleged age cheating by Zambia.
“This is, however, not the reason for our failure, no. Our boys fought. We at least wanted to go home with a scoreless draw. But, unfortunately, we conceded an easy goal.
“Going into the last leg, we will prepare adequately for Zambia at home and if they scored one goal, we can also score two at home and progress to the next stage,” Matlhaku said.
And under-17 national coach Chris Kaunda has insisted his charges are of the right age.
Kaunda said his players were all subjected to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) early this year.
“You can go to UTH and check for the MRI results because I’m not a doctor. One thing I will tell you is that ten of the 37 players failed the tests and we had to bring ten more to come and compete here,” Kaunda said.
The second leg is set for August 2 at Sir Seretse Khama Stadium in Gaborone.
/ By ELIZABETH CHATUVELA (Daily Mail-Zambia)
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Zambia edged Botswana 1-0 at Lusaka’s Sunset Stadium in Lusaka.
Botswana coach Odirile China Matlhaku said in a post-match interview that the junior Chipolopolo has over-age players.
Matlhaku said Botswana will lodge a formal complaint to CAF at a right time.
“Zambia used over-age players and this will surely show at the right time. I have worked with developmental teams for a long time and I can tell if a player is over-age. And the body frame of Zambian players is not the same as Tswanas and just by looking at them, I could tell that they are not the right age,” he said.
Matlhaku, however, said his team’s defeat cannot be attributed to alleged age cheating by Zambia.
“This is, however, not the reason for our failure, no. Our boys fought. We at least wanted to go home with a scoreless draw. But, unfortunately, we conceded an easy goal.
“Going into the last leg, we will prepare adequately for Zambia at home and if they scored one goal, we can also score two at home and progress to the next stage,” Matlhaku said.
And under-17 national coach Chris Kaunda has insisted his charges are of the right age.
Kaunda said his players were all subjected to the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) early this year.
“You can go to UTH and check for the MRI results because I’m not a doctor. One thing I will tell you is that ten of the 37 players failed the tests and we had to bring ten more to come and compete here,” Kaunda said.
The second leg is set for August 2 at Sir Seretse Khama Stadium in Gaborone.
/ By ELIZABETH CHATUVELA (Daily Mail-Zambia)
Be Social: We are glad you liked the post; please share it with your massive and beautiful network of friend on Fb, twitter, google+... Thanks! | facebook/bonaafrica | www.fb/botswanainfo and www.fb.com/sportsmonitor.