The Gambia Football Association was disqualified for sending five athletes - Sampierre Mendy, Buba Sanneh, Bubacarr Trawally, Saloum Fall and Ali Sowe - that were born in 1994, only players born from 1995 onwards can play in the competition, with falsified player documents to the match against Liberia on April 6.

Sowe of Italian club AC Chievo Verona, could be as old as 25, after it discovered records from a 2012 club competition that showed his birthday on his passport as October 14, 1988.

Gambia won 1-0 before the result was annulled and the tie awarded to Liberia.

Issa Hayatou has promised to maintain a tough stance on age fraud to stamp it out in African football ©AFP/Getty Images


The two-year suspension now means that Gambia's senior national team will be unable to compete in qualifying games for the 2015 African Cup of Nations.

The team, which has never qualified for the continent's flagship competition or the FIFA World Cup, was due to play Seychelles this month in a first-round qualifier.

Issa Hayatou, CAF's President, reiterated his organisation's zero tolerance policy to age fraud cases, which "violate ethics and morality", and urged members of its Executive Committee to continue to take a strict approach to rid African football of the practice.

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