On an individual level, and as I wrote in the previous part, it's very difficult for me to judge players, clubs, or even agents for committing age-fraud. I think once you take into consideration how difficult life can be for many people and how one contract is enough to save a whole family, often 10 or 20 people are saved just because of one five years contract with a club in Belgium.

Not to get too political, but we have to also take into account how many of the countries these players go to participate in the low-quality level of the political, social, and cultural scene with exploitation and often constant interference. It's like an act of soft revenge in a way that doesn't seem to hurt people because the transfer fees rarely reach the level of 500 thousand dollars distributed among club and agent and worst-case scenario the buying clubs do get some good years to make up for such an amount that is low to begin with.

I am not saying it's not wrong, but I am saying it's a forced wrong. At some point, the poor got to eat. However, that's not where the moral dilemma lies for me. The problem is when you build a global reputation based on such deception. To fully explain that point we must first take a detour into the actual process of age-fraud transfers.

The Process

Believe it or not, there's no definitive scientific method to determine how old a player really is. If you read the previous parts then you must be wondering then how come there were players who got caught and punished. Not to mention the 32 players ejected by Samuel Eto'o from Cameroon's U-17 squad. Well, the secret is in the fact that it is an under-17 squad.

The only available test is negative evidence, not a positive one. Negative evidence means a piece of evidence based on something not happening. It's like if we walk by a house and I tell you there's someone inside and you peek through one of the windows and see no one. It's simply not enough to determine whether the house has someone in it or not.

To explain this further. FIFA had to step in after many teams started filing complaints about some of the nations for age fraud. FIFA started an MRI test focused on the wrist and forearm. Why those two? Because bones in those areas don't fully join before turning 18 or 19. It's not even a test for all humans, just males. So, that device could only say whether you're 17 or older, but not how old you are exactly.

The test is fairly new and FIFA only started applying it in 2009, it wasn't done to everyone, only similar to the way FIFA does drug tests, just random picks. To make matters worse, there were many appeals against it because the test isn't 100% accurate since not all humans grow up the same way. So much so that Scientific American filed a report telling FIFA that it isn't accurate.

The Dilemma

The result of that is total domination for certain African countries in the U-17 tournaments. Believe it or not, Nigeria and Ghana have 7 U-17 World Cups between them. Nigeria alone has five U-17 World Cups, not even Brazil have that. That's also why around 50% of African players in Europe actually came from those two countries alone. That's the dilemma.

The dilemma is simply that after years of fraud, suspicion, suspensions, punishments, ejection, and bans, you can't really authenticate any of those accomplishments. You can't say any of the trophies won, finals reached, semi-finals played and other similar accomplishments are deserved.

That's the problem with cheating overall. You go far in life, but once you get caught, everything you did is seen with a doubtful eye. So, unless you're a psychopath or a narcissist who believes himself deserving of everything everywhere all at once just because you are you, if you have some self-awareness then cheating would deny you certainty.

There are around 213 million Nigirian and 32 million Ghanian who must be wondering after all the news whether their countries would have gone as far as they have had they sent actual players who are under-17. Nigeria won the Olympic Football Tournaments in Atlanta in 1996, the greatest accomplishment in African football, would Nigeria have done that with a complete squad of appropriate age?

The problem extends to the future as well. Let's say Nigeria, Cameroon, or Ghana actually send an under-17 squad and win the U-17 World Cup, would we even believe it was deserved? The doubt will always remain. So, unless you're a psychopath or a narcissist, you'll always be doubtful.

The second problem with cheating is that it ruins those memories and national celebrations. You could be 100% genuinely happy for something that is based on a lie. It's emotional pollution that whenever you go back to celebrate a certain moment in time, finding out that there was cheating and deception attached to it, simply ruins it.

Now, there's a certain focus I had on Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon throughout this series, but it's all over. That's why there will be a next part of this series but it won't be part of the conversation, just a focus on the funny examples I found of age forgery, so this part is still the conclusion and the next will just be a bonus.

In Conclusion

Age forgery, or age fraud, cheating, call what you want, was, is, and probably will always be a part of football. Many lives were bettered thanks to it, and some clubs or institutions were hurt thanks to it. Some emotional disruption here or there, but such is football in general.

It's a phenomenon that explains another phenomenon as we now know why many African players start declining after their mid-20s. It doesn't take away or hurt many of the African legends in football that we know and love as most examples seem to come from random clubs all over Europe, most of which are outside the top 5 leagues.