The attention of the world of football has once again been drawn closer to the issue of age fraud in the game following the somewhat farcical case of an old-looking Camerounian player of Italian club Lazio, who has been embroiled in controversy over alleged age falsification.

Joseph Minala, a midfielder, is officially 17, but his looks show a man who is much more older than that age. A Senegalese website, Senego.net, claims that Minala confessed to them that he is actually 41 and not 17 years old. This revelation has invited scorn and ridicule for the player in the social media from football followers the world over who are nauseated about age falsification in the game. But the player has come out to vehemently deny the report, saying “they are false statements.”

His club Lazio and his agent Diego Tavano have lept to the defence of their man. While providing official documents which they argued proved the legitimacy of Minala being 17, Lazio warned in their website that they could take legal action against anyone who casts a sinister light on their operations regarding such matters as age falsification related to their employee.

The agent went ahead to admit that his player actually looks old, but pinned that to the fact that his upbringing in his native Cameroun was a tough one, hence the old look in Minala’s face.

In truth, it is difficult for anyone to believe Lazio, Tavano or Minala, when you take a look at the player’s picture. No kind of certificate can convince one to believe that an obviously geriatric looking person is in his twenties. It’s very likely that no amount of suffering would make a 17 year old look like he is in his 40s.

The issue of age-fraud in world football has been a recurring one, with Africa and South America being the most fingered continents for age falsification. Just last weekend, respected Nigerian sports promoter, Godwin Dudu-Orumen, argued that Super Eagles long-serving defender Joseph Yobo was in his late 30s or early 40s and advised national team coach, Stephen Keshi, not to pick a “geriatric” player to prosecute his world cup campaign.

Those who value the purity of the game have been justifiably nauseated by the way in which many players, agents and federations get away with lying about players’ age. The effect of the deceit is multiple. Deserving youth teams are denied a shot of glory because they play against people with far more developed bones; national teams can’t find the needed continuity and smooth transition of youth players to well-rounded and blended senior professionals, because before so-called under 17s reach the senior level they would have been too old and weak to move their limbs at the required rate of the highest level; and

Clubs are short-changed by dubious claims into making investments in players who end up not having the required staying power and sell-on value to justify their fat contracts.

Talking about clubs, it is interesting to note how they never come out publicly to acknowledge that a particular player they’ve signed is actually over-aged. It could be because no club wants to be in the business of finding out that they’ve made a massive mistake in signing an age cheat. And, of course, they may just be more interested in considering the short-term value of the player to their aspirations and focusing more on his immediate quality and value.

As fans ridicule perceived over-aged footballers and call for outright punishment against them, some perspective may just be needed. It is clubsides that pay these players, and complaining too much about their age when their paymasters aren’t may be tantamount to “crying louder than the bereaved.” It is the burden of the club to which a player is contracted, to research how they would possibly get the best out of their employee, and they suffer primarily the burden of any losses.

As for national football federations, the issue of dealing with so-called overage players is more nuanced than many think. Take the case of Yobo, for example. Yes, he may well be in his 40s, but he won’t be staying on as a national team player for much longer. Why not give him one last hurrah at the Brazil 2014 World Cup especially when his experience could be vital, and when he seems to be playing well for his English Premiership club, Norwich? That is to say that labeling a player as ‘overage’ need not be enough grounds to get him dropped for a national assignment. Only his present form should be the major consideration.

There is a moral burden at play with the above position, however. Need we tolerate liars and cheats, because everyone else does? The question is difficult to answer in the context of a world football environment where there are worse things that need the attention of football regulators.

Apart from the junior levels where the fairness of not fielding old men against young boys should be made sacrosanct, much need not be made about the morality or otherwise about players’ age falsification. The most important consideration may just have to be how fit, talented and experienced to handle high pressure situations a player is.

•Nelson Dafe is a News Express Correspondent. Photo shows Yobo Joseph.

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