Vice President of Ghana, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia says introducing Ghana Card in registration will reduce age-cheating in sports.
According to the Veep, the country’s sports disciplines will be full of integrity, specifically on age cheating, if all nationals register.
Ghana is presently fighting a Caf ban for fielding overaged players against Morocco in the African qualifiers to the 2022 Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup set to be staged in India.
U-17 WWCQ: Ghana FA files notice of appeal against age fraud ruling by Caf
“Fake birth certificates were a big problem for our country and it made it very difficult for people to trust our documents.
“Most embassies had issues. In fact, when we went to the birth and death registry, we found three different databases.
“And we had to harmonize the databases,” Dr. Bawumia revealed during his speech at the Civil Service Awards ceremony on Friday, July 29.
“Once you have a unique identity you’ll not have fake birth certificates
“Because there will be no football age versus normal age. That business will come to an end.”
Meanwhile, in June, the GFA decided to use the Ghana Card as “the only proof of identity for registration; renewals, transfers and new registrations” beginning the upcoming 2022/23 football season.
“Recently you would know that our Maidens team was banned for presenting some players who were past the 17 years mark.
“Hopefully, now we are going to strictly require that they bring their Ghana card before they are going to be registered to play.”
Ghana failed to qualify for the major competitions in the men’s U-17 and U-20 but the female’s U-20 tourney will be played in Costa Rica.
The Black Princesses will battle USA, Japan and Netherlands at the Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup.
