17 June 2011
Namibia did not obtain special permission to enter an Under-20 team in the VfL Theesen International Youth Tournament reserved for under-17s, the organisers said yesterday.
Neither was any other team afforded the luxury to field older players in the competition, as was sensationally claimed by Namibia Football Association secretary general Barry Rukoro on Tuesday.
Namibia’s Under-20 team won the biannual tournament on Monday when they beat Arminia Bielefeld Under-17 1-0 in the final through a goal by Black Africa striker Roger Katjiteo.
Rukoro told a The Namibian Sport that the team had been given special permission to field an overage team in the competition and that they were not the only team with overage players at the tournament.
These claims were refuted by the Sports Director of VfL Theesen’s Youth Department, Wolfgang Klee, who said they were under the impression Namibia had entered an under-17 team for the tournament.
“All the organisers in Theesen thought that Namibia had entered an under-17 team. We are strict on the age limit and none of the other teams entered overage players,” he said.
“The main organiser of the tournament, Michael Haselhorst, told me that neither he, nor the club had been asked for special permission to enter an overage team,” he added.
All the teams had to submit team lists before each match with the players’ passport numbers and birth dates.
According to Klee, all the teams did this except Namibia, who entered their lists without birth dates. Klee however said that they accepted Namibia’s bona fides.
“For us it was not a problem because we thought that everything had been checked between the NFA and Westphalia,” Klee said.
“We have had national teams here before like Spain and the USA, but we never checked the passports of the national teams, that would be disrespectful.”
The Namibian team had been invited to Germany by the Nordrhein Westphalia region, as part of a longstanding bilateral sport agreement between the two nations. However, even Namibia’s hosts, Westphalia, were under the impression that Namibia had sent an Under-17 team.
Prior to the tournament Namibia U/17 beat a Westphalia U/16 team 4-2 in a friendly match on June 2. On June 9 Namibia beat an U/17 regional Westphalia team 3-1 in another friendly.
According to the website www.svdringenberg the Namibian U/17 team made use of their physical advantage in the second half, while some of the Namibian players were far bigger than their German opponents.
Several of the players in the Namibian squad represented Namibia Under-17 nearly three years ago in September 2008 when they beat Zambia in an African U/17 qualifier. They include Collin Ndjai, Benson Shilongo, Neville Tjiueza and Petrus Shitembi.
Klee said it did not make sense to enter an overage team in the tournament.
“In my opinion it does not make sense to play against younger teams because you won’t get any information on the status of your own players,” he said.
“It is only reasonable to play against the same age teams to see where you stand in relation to top international youth teams.”
AllAfrica – All the Time
Taken from:
Country Cheats in U/17 Tournament