Some youth team players have been accused of manipulating their ages to join the Zimbabwe squad for the COSAFA Under-20 Championship.
Zifa has since launched an investigation into the matter. The national youth team was due to travel to Maputo in Mozambique last night ahead of the opening match of the COSAFA U-20 Championship on Thursday.
The Herald reported that the Young Warriors camp led by Simon Marange has been hit with damning allegations that at least half a dozen of the team’s players, who the Orlando Pirates youth coach was working with in training, manipulated their ages to remain eligible for selection.
ZIFA technical director Jethro Honedzarira said yesterday they were taking the allegations seriously and had contracted the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage and the Zimbabwe Schools Examinations Council to assist in their investigations.
“Our initial investigations showed that everything was in order,” Honedzira said. “We conducted investigations and ended up verifying this with the Zimbabwe Security and Defence Commission and the Ministry of Home Affairs. We also asked all the players to fill out declarations stating that the documents and information they provided were correct.”
“We then followed the suspects and although their documents looked good, we went further and checked with ZIMSEC,” Honedzira said.
