BOMBSHELL: Ghana's U17 coach Paa Kwesi Fabin claims country's 1991 World Cup squad were overaged

Published on: 10 February 2016

Ghana’s U17 head coach Paa Kwesi Fabin has made a damaging allegation that the country cheated its way to clinch the FIFA U17 World Cup in 1991 by using overage players to win the tournament in Japan.

This serious allegation by the coach of Black Starlets is hugely damaging to the credibility of Ghana and could also lead to the country being stripped off the title as this claim is made by a top official of the West African country.

This could also lead to the coach being hauled before the FIFA Ethics Committee to substantiate his claims before the decision is taken to take the title away from Ghana.

The Ghana FA which has been hugely embarrassed by this claim could also haul the coach before its own Ethics Committee to stand up his claim and failure could lead to him losing his post.

Age cheating has been a major challenge to many football nations in Africa and the current head coach of the Black Starlets claims Ghana cheated in 1991.

The Black Starlets were disqualified for fielding an overaged player in the 2015 African Championship qualifier against Cameroon in 2014 when Samuel Twum failed the MRI test.

Many soccer pundits have attributed Ghana’s failure to win the tournament after the 1991 expedition to the introduction of the MRI scan which has made it extremely difficult for countries to cheat.

Coach Fabin, however, insists it would be wrong to compare the current generation of Starlets players to the older generation, which were more successful, because they were full of age cheats.

“Sometimes people make comparisons, but in 1991 we won this Cup and so on but those days are quite different because those days anybody is paraded as an Under-17 player and they go and play and win,” Coach Fabin told Starr Sports.

“Well, I wouldn’t say we cheated but it’s obvious that some of them were well over 17. Because, the other time I think I heard Yaw Preko on air saying that they were asked to change their ages and things like that. I heard him on air, not me,” he added.

Coach Fabin and his technical team are currently at Prampram preparing the current squad for the qualifiers in June.

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website.
Learn more