Age cheating soiling popular school games, root it out fast
Highway Secondary School players pray after their 1-0 against St Mary's Kitende of Uganda in the boys' semifinals during the Federation of East Africa Secondary Schools Sports Association at TGT grounds in Arusha on September 22, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Two schools in Kisii County have been banned from the school games for fielding overage players. More complaints are expected..
- KSSSA must deal decisively with schools breaking the rules. That deterrent is very much needed now to restore sanity at the games.
The Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association Term Two Games are underway and are drawing a lot of attention. It is surprising to see huge crowds, mainly made of local villagers, turning out to support players in schools in their neighbourhood!
This in itself should be an eye opener to the officials who organise higher tier leagues. They ought to realise that Kenyans actually do love football, and if given a chance, they would turn up in large numbers to watch local matches.
Owing to this great feat, this column lauds the Kenya Secondary Schools Sports Association (KSSSA) for a job well done. The organisation is superb and the logistics have been, so far, flawless.
We have snooped around to find out if there is any murmuring or whispers against the office bearers, but to their credit, we found none. For that we are thankful and wish to see the whole tournament proceeding smoothly.
One football administrator once was quoted saying there is no football talent in this country and that is why our national team, Harambee Stars is beaten mercilessly like Balaam’s ass!
We do hope that he is closely watching the overwhelming talent displayed at the school games, and that, perhaps, he too can open his eyes and make the under 16 and under 20 teams grow. It is his duty to do so!
From this great tournament, we are sure that with correct organisation Kenya shall soon be having a very good team of juniors who shall later mature into a formidable, world beating team. This is how it is done in progressive societies.
It should be emphasised that school games must strictly be for students who are under the age of 16 to 18 years old. Stiff competition and the urge to win at all costs sometimes tempts teachers, coaches and head teachers to use underhand tactics to achieve success.
This vice had been tamed a long while ago, but again, it seems our country has very resilient people when it comes to corruption. They just don’t care about the consequences of their actions! They pursue victory by hook or by crook!
This is the main flaw in the school games. Ineligible players who are too mature for their opponents are unleashed by some schools and they brazenly win matches by body checking their younger competitors in the most alarming manner!
We have beheld adults masquerading as youth finding their way into school teams; their knuckles tell an older story; the protruding veins in their inner thighs speak volumes; the curvature of their cheekbones exposes their age; the scars and folds on their knees make us feel like weeping; these are criminals whose age doesn’t allow them to compete in the games!
In 2003, the continental football governing body CAF disqualified Kenya’s national under 20 team over age cheating. Since then, we have not fully recovered!
Two schools in Kisii County have been banned from the school games for fielding overage players. More complaints are expected..
KSSSA must deal decisively with schools breaking the rules. That deterrent is very much needed now to restore sanity at the games.
