• ZAMBIA captain Paston Daka (left) battles for the ball with Ugandan defender Samuel Nemeyimana during yesterday’s Niger 2015 Africa Junior Championship final round first leg qualifier at Nkoloma Stadium. Zambia won 2-0. Picture by JEAN MANDELA.

By SANDRA MWILA –
THE Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) has dared the Ugandan Football authorities to conduct Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) tests on the Zambian players to verify the players age.
FAZ executive committee member in charge of youth football Lee Kawanu said in an interview that accusations by Ugandan coach Mathias Lule that Zambian players were overage were baseless.
Kawanu said the Ugandan authorities were free to conduct MRI tests on the Zambian players if they thought the players were overage.
Lule said, after the Niger 2015 Africa Junior Championship final round first leg 2-0 defeat suffered at the hands of Zambia that, that the Zambian players were overage adding that the MRI scan used in Zambia could be different from that in Uganda.
The visibly annoyed Lule claimed that he was not under pressure by taking the matter further because Uganda will overturn the result in Kampala and qualify.
“Why should I complain? This is talent development and all I can say is that we should be using eligible players or maybe and just maybe, the MRI scan used in Zambia is different from ours,” he said.
Kawanu said the Ugandan coach was free to take all the players for an MRI in his country if he is not convinced that the Zambian players passed their MRI tests.
“As far as I am concerned all our players passed the MRI test and if he thinks they are overage he is free to take the players for a test and he should also conduct a test on their defender Asiku Bashir,” Kawanu said.
He said the Ugandan team was a good and strong side but that the Chris Kaunda led side deserved to win the match because they played a highly tactical game.
“Zambia played a highly tactical game and the deserved the victory over the Uganda and accusing our team of age cheating is just a scapegoat,” Kawanu said.
Meanwhile, Kaunda said the coaching bench will iron out the mistakes made during the first leg to ensure the seal a victory in Uganda.
Kaunda said the players usually seem to have a problem playing at home and was confident the lads will qualify.
The return leg is set for September 27 in Kampala with the winner after the two legs qualifying to next year’s finals in Niger that will be held from February 15 to March 1.
Zambia has never qualified to the CAF Under-17 Cup.