Guinea will be replaced by Senegal for the U17 World Cup in Brazil this year and have been slapped with a Nations Cup ban from the Confederation of African Football.
Despite CAF taking action before the U17 AFCON in Tanzania by preventing four players from competing upon MRI scans, which included one player from Guinea - the West African nation have been found guilty of age-cheating. After reaching the final of the U-17 Nations Cup in April, Guinea were poised for a sixth World Cup showing by finshing as runners-up to Cameroon. However, CAF have since announced that Guinea fielded two ineligible players in Tanzania and that Senegal will replace them for the showpiece in October. "The players Aboubacar Conte and Ahmed Tidiane Keita were not eligible to participate with Guinea in the Final Tournament of the U-17 Afcon played in Tanzania," Caf said in a statement. "Due to the existence of two different passports for each of the players concerned, one passport was used for the International Under-16 Cup held in Japan, the year of birth date being 2001, and the other for the final U-17 Afcon tournament in Tanzania, which indicated the year of birth as 2002, which clearly shows that there was forgery." "Because of their participation, the team is excluded from the competition and all its results and achievements during the competition must be cancelled." "The Guinean Football Federation, following its disqualification, is prevented from representing Caf at the Fifa U-17 World Cup to be held in 2019." "The Organizing Committee will be invited to reinstate Senegal and the Executive Committee to approve the participation of Senegal as Caf's 4th representative at the Fifa U-17 World Cup to be held in 2019."