Sierra Leone U17 national boys team has gained automatic qualification to the semi-finals of the ongoing WAFU Zone A tournament hosted in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
According to the Director of Competition at the Sierra Leone Football Association, Sorie Ibrahim Sesay, he got confirmation about the team’s progression to the semifinals from the WAFU Zone A Competitions Director, Abdoulaye Cisse through a telephone conversation on Monday evening.
Sesay said the U17 qualification came after the disqualification of the Liberia U17 team for registering overage players that failed the mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imaging tests (MRI) conducted on Sunday.
Information reaching Mags Tribune Sports from Liberia states that two out of the 20 players from the team were above 17 and due to the test result the entire team was declared none eligible to participate in the tournament.
Article 27.4 of the U17 nations cup regulations states: “If after performing the age eligibility test (MRI) for a participating team and one (1) player was found none eligible, the participating team will be disqualified.”
Sierra Leone who now tops Group A following their 3-0 victory over the host nation, Mauritania on Saturday will play the runner-up of Group B in the first semi-finals on Friday, 7th October 2022.
The winners of the two semi-final matches qualify automatically for the CAF U17 tournament to be hosted in Algeria in 2023.
