Sports analyst Jeffery Amoah has claimed that Ghana’s past success in youth football was partly influenced by using overaged players before Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) screening was introduced to verify players’ ages.

Speaking on Angel FM in Kumasi, Amoah compared Ghana’s record in the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Nigeria’s, arguing that age-verification measures have changed the competitive landscape of youth football.

“ In terms of the Under-17 World Cup and AFCON, Nigeria and Ghana have two each. In the years these countries dominated, we used older players to go and play. None of the players was under 17, and we are all aware,” he said.

Amoah argued that MRI screening has made it harder for overaged players to participate in age-restricted competitions, forcing countries to rely on players who genuinely fall within the eligible age category.

“It is the MRI that has come that has prevented us from taking the old people to go and play, but rather the actual age range,” he stated.

The analyst also expressed concern about Ghana’s recent record in the Under-17 AFCON, pointing to the team’s absence from the competition since 2017 as a sign that more attention must be given to youth football development.

He said Ghana must deliberately invest in its junior national teams to improve competitiveness and deliver better results.

“We have to make a deliberate effort to invest in the team in order to gain better results from the young players,” Amoah added.