Malawi schools body bemoans age-cheating in sports

Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) has express concern over incidents of age-cheating among schools during competitions.

Massa Chairman for Blantyre Rural Richard Kambuluma said some teams beat the system to register over-aged players.

Kambuluma said the situation was worsened because issues  of incidents of age-cheating was compounded by the fact that the screening start at an advanced stage of competitions.

“When we start schools competitions sponsors do not have interest to ensure that schools are checked against age-cheating,” Kambuluma said.

“Sponsors start getting serious when the competitions reach regional phase.”

The concern comes after 15 players were banned in Blantyre after it was established that they cheated on their ages.

Massa runs Coca-Cola Schools Competition sponsored by Southern Region and Airtel Rising Stars sponsored by Airtel Malawi in which Under-16 years old.

Malawi National Council of Sports has of late encouraged associations to verify ages following a number of players being barred from participating in competitions after being found age cheating.

Lack of national identity cards and birth certificates has been blamed on this coupled with stunted growth in which children look younger than their actual age.