Gambia disqualified from U-20 qualifiers for fielding overage players

Gambia Under 20 disqualified from qualifiers

The Gambia has been disqualified from the 2015 African U-20 Championship qualifiers for fielding five overage players.

The Gambia U-20 team were thrown out of the qualifiers to face Ivory Coast in the second round of the preliminaries after a CAF committee ruled a protest case in favor of Liberia.

This follows after the Liberia Football Association (LFA) filed an appeal against Gambia for fielding overage players in the first leg of the round qualifier on April 7, 2014 at the Antoinette Tubman Stadium, a game Gambia won 1-0 courtesy of a Bakary Daffeh 35th minute strike.

Gambia won the match but CAF found that Gamtel’s Sampierre Mendy, Casa Sport’s Saloum Faal, Juve Stabia’s Ali Sowe and Real de Banjul duo Bubacarr Sanneh and Bubacarr Trawally were all born in 1994 with the competition’s regulations stating that players have to be born on or after 1 January 1995.

A CAF statement read: “The Organising Committee for the Orange Africa U-20 Championship has disqualified Gambia from the competition. The decision follows a protest by Liberia on some players of Gambia during the first leg on Sunday, 6 April 2014, which Gambia won 1-0.”

“Indeed, Sampierre Mendy, Buba Sanneh, Bubacarr Trawally, Saloum Faal and Ali Sowe were all born in 1994 and are not qualified to participate in the competition reserved for players born on or after 1 January 1995, as stated in a circular dated 2 September 2013 sent to all Member Associations of CAF.”

“In view of this, Match Number 22 (second leg) Gambia – Liberia scheduled for 25-27 April is canceled, and Liberia has qualified for the next round.”

Meanwhile, this blog understands that the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) will appeal against the country’s disqualification as it has the right to challenge the CAF Protest Committee’s decision.

This medium also understands that striker Ali Sowe is currently being investigated by CAF for registering two birthdates, while Gambia is to face further punishment from the continent’s governing body for their wrongdoings.

Liberia thus becomes the first nation to join reigning champions Egypt, Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia in the second round of qualifiers.

The 20th edition of the African U-20 competition, is scheduled for neighboring country Senegal from March 8 to 22, 2015.