South Sudan under-17 national team have been disqualified from the ongoing Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations after five of their players failed to pass the mandatory MRI test.
MRI tests were conducted on all players before the tournament to determine their eligibility and South Sudan were disqualified after five of their players were deemed ‘overage’.
Two of the five players had passed the MRI tests during the regional qualifiers late last year but unfortunately failed this time around.
The CAF rules state that if five or more players fail to pass the MRI tests the team is disqualified from participating in that tournament.
South Sudan were in group C alongside Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali. The group is now set to only have three members with the tournament’s total number of teams also reducing to eleven.
Meanwhile, hosts Algeria opened their group campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over debutants Somalia in the first group A fixture played on Saturday night in Algiers. On Sunday, Senegal will battle Congo Brazzaville (15:00hrs CAT) in the second group A fixture.
Group B also comes alive on Sunday with record five time World champions Nigeria facing Zambia(18:00hrs CAT) and Morocco battling South Africa (21:00hrs CAT).
