A former Ugandan youth footballer admits to falsifying his age to gain an edge in age-restricted competitions – according to him, a common practice in Uganda's football scene. Yet while it led to early success, the deception ultimately hindered his professional career as Uganda started cracks down on age fraud.
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00:00John Benson, not real name, has played football at a youth national level in Uganda.
00:06He confesses falsifying age in order to qualify for age-restricted competitions.
00:12It has been a usual thing in Uganda, that cheating age doesn't matter.
00:20It gives you a bigger advantage.
00:23That makes you a better player in the youth league.
00:29Benson won numerous medals and trophies at a youth national level.
00:34But when he attempted professional club football, he failed to perform to expectations.
00:39You reach 30 years and get to 40 years, for example, you become slow and the pace of football
00:46is at a higher intensity.
00:48You cannot be on pitch for longer and it will cost the team to lose.
00:53Andrew Mwesegwa captained Uganda's national football team between 2008 and 2015.
01:00He played for clubs in professional leagues in countries like Turkey, Iceland and China
01:05before retiring in 2018.
01:08Now grooming young talented players at a local football academy outside Kampala, Mwesegwa
01:13blames age fraud for hampering football development.
01:17You yourself, you may not develop.
01:19The fact that you're always getting less challenge, you know, and the one that is again
01:25playing with you who is under, you know, is being limited to his abilities.
01:30So it has killed the game in that way.
01:32That those that play, you know, with their minors, they don't develop.
01:36And those that are, you know, the minors don't execute their abilities really well because
01:42they are having heavy challenges.
01:44The head of Uganda's football governing body, FUFA, has now introduced a stringent law.
01:50Moses Magogo, who is also a member of Uganda's parliament, wants those found guilty of age
01:55fraud punished with a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.
02:02Age was becoming a challenge for us to take players through to the market where the players
02:07are needed, and that's Europe, without going through the proper processes of preparing them.
02:14If we did youth competitions, you'd find that there are many players who are not exactly
02:18belonging in that age bracket.
02:20So it denies the younger players an opportunity to be able to compete.
02:24In 2016, a player on Uganda's national football team was reportedly found guilty of falsifying
02:31documents to cheat age.
02:34The Confederation of African Football, CAF, which governs football in Africa, punished
02:39Uganda with an expulsion from the under-20 World Cup qualifiers.
02:45Many African countries have faced similar or tougher penalties, such as Ghana, which
02:50was fined $100,000 in 2022.
02:54When people know that this is a criminal, naturally the first thing to do is nobody
02:59wants to do something wrong.
03:00But they have been doing it without any legal framework that stops them from doing it.
03:05Retired footballer Benson is also hoping for a change.
03:10I don't regret, because at that time it was the normal thing that most of the players
03:18were doing.
03:20But at this stage, when we want to progress, we need to have the rightful players, to groom
03:26them to the professionals.
03:29In Europe, officials use medical technologies like MRI to help determine probable age of
03:34athletes.
03:36This technology has not reached many parts of Africa.
03:40This is where Uganda hopes that EATSTA Flow can be the solution to age fraud in football.