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The objectives of FIFA and the Swiss police are not the
same. The sporting body combat fraud in competition
(currently taking place in Nigeria) and the Swiss agency
for detecting false refugee children.
It is good to compare, but the technology used by the
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
and the Swiss police is the same: control by magnetic
resonance imaging (MRI). It says the technology is
neutral, and its objective depends for its intended
purpose.
This technology is applied by officials of the Federal
Office for Migration (OFDM) to detect asylum seekers
from the African continent claiming underage status that
allows them to qualify for asylum laws for children, and
avoid expulsion if their demands are not accepted.
International conventions signed by Switzerland to
prevent minors returning looking to escape the war for
many Africans say they are minors. For them it is the
only chance of being admitted, since the Confederation
tightened immigration laws in 2007.
Application in sport
In the case of Nigeria Mundial Sub 17, MRI tests are
made with African players who claim to be younger than
they are physically represented. In this tournament, the
rules stipulate that those born after 1 January 1992 are
authorised to play.
For years, the success of African youth teams and
physical appearance has raised doubts in this regard,
particularly since these early successes failed to
translate years later into triumphs at senior level.
Added to this is that in some African countries the
registration of newborns in the civil registry offices
is not systematic or immediate, so it can be that not
always does the dates of birth correspond to the true
age of adolescents.
Natural or Fraud
For this reason, FIFA decided to use magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) of the wrist, to assess the degree of
physical development and establish an age estimation
that is as accurate as possible.
This new additional evidence to establish if they have
physical strength, an often decisive factor for the
superiority of young Africans over their counterparts in
other parts of the planet, is due to natural reasons.
It is not persecution of Africans, and the world
football authorities argue that there is not always
intent to mislead when it detects an event, and confirm
that the population registers of the countries are not
always completely accurate.
No bad faith
"We know that in general there is no bad faith when
players are discovered biologically to be older than 17.
In some countries, the birth certificates are vague or
even nonexistent, and it's not their fault, neither the
player nor the association," said Yacine Zerguini, the
Medical Committee of FIFA and the African Confederation
(CAF).
The additional checks were launched by FIFA in 2003 in
response to complaints about this issue, but it has not
been easy to establish the best method.
The analysis of epiphyseal cartilage in his left wrist
has been used frequently in legal areas to establish the
real age, because if it is completely closed as is
usually considered, 99% of the time the age is more than
17 years.
In the case of the Swiss police in their fight against
the trafficking of refugees, the system has also yielded
results, as in 90% of suspected cases being established
that the age of asylum-seekers was not what it had
declared.
Swisslatin
/ adapted by
Stephen Hinch
(26.10.2009) |
