Chad disqualified by CAF as players fail MRI age test

Chad has become the latest country to have its players fail the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) age tests, adding to a rising age cheating scandal ahead of 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Earlier, Cameroon were forced to replace 30 of 32 players that failed the MRI tests as had been ordered by the country's football FA president, Samuel Eto'o.

Most recently, the Democratic Republic of Congo were forced to pull out of the Central African Football Federation's Union (UNIFFAC) qualifiers for the U-17 AFCON after 25 of their players failed the tests.

Now, according to BSN Sports, seven players from Chad initially failed with some uncertainty over Ousmane Diallo - who the country’s FA believed had been deemed eligible.

They were then told they had been kicked out of the AFCON tournament the night before they were due to begin their qualification campaign.

Chad were meant to open their qualification campaign with a game against Congo on Thursday, however, following the update of the tests, got thrown out of the qualifiers by CAF.

Chad’s football federation vice-president Nair Abakar said: “CAF announced a disqualification at 10:23 pm, something that is difficult to digest.

“If you put yourself in our place, you will see how difficult it is to accept this decision.”

Cameroon, Central Africa Republic and Congo are now the only teams left in the qualifiers series.