Ten players sentenced to prison for age falsification

The Benin Football Federation has sentenced ten of its players to jail for age cheating at Afcon U-17 qualifiers. 

On Tuesday, a Cotonou court sentenced an official and ten players to prison for fraud charges and age cheating. 

This is after Benin were banned from the 2019 Under-17 African Cup of Nations qualifiers when half of the team failed the MRI [Magnetic Resonance Imaging] test in September.

The players were apprehended by police upon their return home from Niamey, where they were taking part in the qualifiers, but with the intervention of several leaders from the federation, they were sentenced to a month-long imprisonment yesterday.

Mathurin de Chacus, who is the new president of the Beninese Football Federation, is the one who filed a complaint about the players’ age scandal and promised “a justified” sanctions, saying this is just the beginning in his plans to "to stop improvisation, corruption, and amateurism" at the West African country's football federation.

According to AFP’s report, a policeman including several members and local elected officials were alleged to have hands in this scandal but were not indicted on the "benefit of the doubt". 

The former president of Benin Football Federation's Anjorin Moucharafou was also sentenced to 12 months in jail at the same hearing. 

In July 2011, Moucharafou was arrested for fraud.

FIFA has previously suspended the country completely in 2004 for “age cheating scandal” and between 2010 and 2013, several ban threats were sent. 

Their junior national team was deeply involved in yet another scandal in 2016.