By Patrick Akoto
Ghana’s Under-17 head coach Paa Kwesi Fabian has  dropped  12 players after they failed age tests.
The players underwent the compulsory MRI bone scan test to ascertain the veracity of their ages but twelve of them could not beat technology.
Africa’s governing body, CAF, ordered all federations in Africa to do the test and submit the report ahead of the African Under-17 Championship qualifiers.
“We have done the test on the players but unfortunately 12 of them failed,†Fabian said.
“But we have a pool of players to choose from so there is no cause for alarm.â€
The exercise by Fifa is to ensure the age-long problem of age-cheating is reduced drastically.
Ghana has also dropped players in the past after some failed the test prior to the World Under-17 championship held in Peru in 2005.
The Black Starlets, two-time world champions, will face the Baby Scorpions on the weekend of 19-21 October in Banjul for the first leg of the qualifiers.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a test that uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to make pictures of organs and structures inside the body.
It evaluates age (in this instance, of football players) from the degree of fusion of the distal radius (in the wrist) and compares these findings with those of normal population of similar age.
