Sunday, September 07, 2014

CAF Suspends Benin Republic For Two Years


Confederation of African Football (CAF) has suspended Benin Republic from all age grade competitions for the next two years, according to sources.

It said four of Benin players were outside the age criteria for their African U-17 Championship Niger 2015 second round qualifier against Mali.The players are: Ibilola Aron (born on 10-12-1997), Ogoubiyi Oluwa (born on 26-10-1997), Oreko Evode (born on 24-12-1997) and Amoussou Tony (born on 19-9-1997).

A CAF circular dated 2 September 2013 sent to all National Associations stated that players born on 1 January 1998 and after are eligible to participate in the competition.The Organising Committee of the African U-17 Championship in pursuant to Article 33 clause 11 of the regulations of the competition have therefore decided to disqualify Benin, with Mali qualifying to face Tunisia at the final round of the qualifiers.

Also, the Committee recognizes the fact that the Benin Football Federation was guilty of an administrative error in registering or indicating the date of births without deliberate intent to deceive or cheat.It therefore, applied Article 37 of the regulations, particularly Paragraph 2 which states: “For any administrative error in the matter of the players’ registration or date of birth without deliberate intention, the concerned association shall be suspended for two years from all the age category competitions of CAF.”This means that Benin are suspended from competing in age categories competitions namely U-17, U-20 and U-23 for the next two years.
Benin is the second federation this year after Gambia, to bear the brunt of strict enforcement and zero tolerance declared by CAF President and the Executive Committee on issues related to compliance with the age limits for age competitions.

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