The Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has appealed to CAF over alleged aged cheating by Burundi under-20 national team.

FAZ communications manager, Desmond Katongo, said in a press statement yesterday that Zambia has formally lodged a complaint to CAF over the Burundi Football Federation’s decision to use overaged players in the under-20 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Katongo said FAZ has asked CAF to thoroughly investigate the background of the Burundi players.

“All the players playing under-20 must have previously played under-17 and underwent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests. If the players have no previous under-17 records, that should indicate age manipulation. There is need for CAF to undertake validation checks using the CAF database as we have no direct proof to ascertain the correct ages of the Burundi players since the same information is only provided by the Burundi Football Federation.

For a player to be in under-20, when did they get registration to play in their local league. CAF can call for such records for secondary validation. If there is no record, then that should immediately be a signal of age manipulation,” Katongo said.

He said FAZ is further informed that Zambian players were subjected to physical intimidation and metal detectors used by soldiers during training and before playing the game.