Pirates has for long being fingered for age cheating in its junior ranks with KickOff reporting extensively on these allegations last year when proof was brought forward that some boys in the club’s development have ‘football ages’.
"I support the decision by the chairman (Irvin Khoza) to temporarily suspend the development to allow for full investigations to take place. I believe in as far as it is the responsibilities of parents not to promote age cheating when they bring their kids to us at the club we must also take a firm stand on this matter because we are totally against this.
"Parents must not destroy their kids by pushing them to cheat just so that they get into our development structures. I am very concerned about age cheating so I really support the push to try and eliminate it," says Palacios.
The long-serving Pirates coach adds they have chased away a lot of players during the years upon finding out that they are age cheats.
"The moment we find out that a boy cheated we simply chase him away. There have been cases where when some boys arrived they say they are 13 and have all the paperwork that we demand to support their age but three years we realise that they are now actually 19-20 because they are not doing things like boys their age anymore.
"Pirates is a club that spends a lot of money on development so it is very important that we reap the benefits from these youth structures by doing the right thing," he says.
Palacios says while the club development has been frozen for now he is glad that all five players in the national Under-17 squad from the club have passed the MRI scan tests.
"I am happy that all those boys were cleared. It is just unfortunate that these tests cannot be conducted at club level where we have a lot of players because they are way too expensive," notes Palacios.
The 60 year-old adds that he will be working on his own development in the meantime while also remaining actively involved in football through coaching and other activities.
"In the meantime I am also working on my own development – the Augusto Palacios Development – which is a basic skills programme from which the best players then get promoted to the Pirates academy.
"This is a basic skills development operating on Thursday and Saturday from March to November. For now even the boys from the Pirates development are still around writing their exams and finishing off their schooling for the year before they leave.
"Normally we close the Pirates development in October to allow boys to concentrate on exams and then re-open in January. There also hasn’t been anyone who works within the club’s development who has been told otherwise despite the development being suspended," says Palacios.
No time period has been given as with regard to how long the investigations will go on for.