Syria U23 player suspected of cheating on age still plays match against Vietnam U23
Many U23 Syrian players are suspected of cheating on their age, but at this time the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has no way to prove whether they are following the rules or not. Therefore, matches involving U23 Syria will still take place normally and no players will be banned.
After the opening match against U23 Australia, the media in the land of kangaroos raised suspicions with AFC about U23 Syria's age fraud. Accordingly, this team had up to 8 players born on January 1. It is worth mentioning that according to AFC regulations, only players born from January 1, 1995 onwards are allowed to participate in the tournament.
Checking the 8 U23 Syria players with the same birth date of January 1, there are only 2 born in 1995, 3 born in 1996, 3 born in 1997 and 1 player born in 1998.
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| Syria U23 player suspected of cheating on age still plays match against Vietnam U23. |
The fact that so many players were born on January 1st in the U23 Syria team is raising questions about age fraud. Even the continental media has confirmed that it is unusual for 1/3 of the team to have players with the same birthday.
AFC confirmed that it can only verify the age of players through official letters sent to the Football Federations and Governments of the countries. Cases such as Jihad Busmar (No. 4) was born on January 10, 1996 but when registered it was changed to January 1, 1996, Fares Arnaout (No. 5, born on January 31, 1997), Momen Naji (No. 7, born on October 9, 1996), Rafat Muhtadi (No. 10, born on December 24, 1995), Khaled Kurdaghli (No. 15, born on January 31, 1997) are 5 players who re-registered their date of birth.
The AFC said only that January 1 is the registered date of birth for many Syrians, especially those from remote areas where documentation is difficult to obtain. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has used January 1 as the date of birth for Syrian refugees who do not have documentation and whose date of birth is unknown.
Perhaps for this reason, and Syria is also facing many difficulties due to the unstable political situation, so AFC also "sympathizes" and does not expand the investigation into the age of U23 Syria.