Vietnam U23's opponent - Syria U23 suspected of age fraud

Yesterday afternoon (January 14), U23 Vietnam had a surprising 1-0 victory over U23 Australia to rise to second place in Group D of the 2018 AFC U23 Championship. Meanwhile, U23 Syria also excellently held U23 Korea to a 0-0 draw. This result means that all teams in the group still have a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals. In the final match, U23 Vietnam will meet U23 Syria.

U23 Syria (red shirt) is suspected of using many players over 23 years old when participating in the 2018 AFC U23 Championship.

Right before the “life-or-death” match between the two teams, U23 Syria was suddenly suspected of cheating on the age of its players. The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) cited an investigation by Fairfax Media suspecting U23 Syria of using some players older than the U23 age group.

Fairfax Media's investigation shows that some U23 Syrian players who played against U23 Australia at the U23 Asian Cup are suspected of age fraud. Specifically, in the records of strikers Shadi Al-Hamwi and Mohammad Rafat Muhtadi submitted to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), they were registered as born on January 1, 1995. In the 1-3 loss to Australia, Al-Hamwi and Muhtadi both played. In addition, the U23 Syrian squad has a total of 8 players born on January 1, 1995.

The rules of the U23 Asian Cup clearly state that only players born on or after January 1, 1995 are eligible to participate in the tournament. At this time, the Australian media suspected that the U23 Syria team had falsified documents to bring in older players. They said that a team with 8 players born on January 1, 1995 was very suspicious.

The incident was reported to the AFC. However, the Asian Football Confederation said that it could only verify the age of the players participating in the tournament through official letters sent by the Football Federation of that country. In addition, they could only trust the authenticity of the governments of the countries whose teams participated in the tournament.

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