Kolkata: Earlier this month, Odisha ended a 47-year wait by making the final of the boys’ junior national football championship played for the Dr BC Roy Trophy. This was only the third time Odisha had qualified for the final of the tournament that started in 1962.

But the allegation that Odisha fielded 12 overage players in this age-specific tournament – players born on or after January 1, 2009 were eligible – tainted the achievement. On an inquiry from All India Football Federation (AIFF), the charge was denied by Football Association of Odisha (FAO).

Football isn’t immune to the problem of age fudging in youth competitions across sport in India. A number of state associations are struggling to form a squad of 22 for next month’s sub-junior national championship because age tests have become mandatory, said an AIFF official. Five teams were scratched from the 63rd Subroto Cup inter-school football tournament earlier this month. Last year, the tournament had disqualified 16 teams for fielding overage players.

What also emerged from FAO honorary secretary Ashirbad Behera’s letter to AIFF is that details of age-tests in the national under-15 league held earlier in the year were not shared with states. It is the member association and not the academies whose players were tested who are AIFF’s affiliates, the letter has pointed out.

“So, under no circumstances the Football Association of Odisha had any knowledge/information regarding the TW3 Results of the players who had undergone this Test (sic),” Behera wrote to AIFF on August 12, also the day of the final which Odisha lost 0-2 in Narayanpur, Chattisgarh in the final. HT has a copy of the letter.

The TW3 or Tanner Whitehouse 3 method is a way of estimating a person’s age by determining skeletal maturity through an X-ray of the left hand and the wrist. While widely used, expert opinion is divided on its accuracy.

In an October 2023 meeting of AIFF’s medical committee to deal with age-fraud, former secretary-general Shaji Prabhakaran had spoken of the need to “eliminate this cancer from football.” TW3 tests were approved in that meeting.

Boys and girls participating in under-13 and under-15 national leagues and the sub-junior national championships would need to undergo the test, AIFF decided this year. Only those who had passed the test were eligible for the under-13 and under-15 national leagues in 2024.

Clubs and academies pay for the test, which cost approximately ₹1500 per player and is conducted by agencies approved by AIFF and in the presence of an official from the federation. For state teams, AIFF pays for the test for 30 players.

But the TW3 test was not part of the regulations for the BC Trophy which became an under-15 tournament from 2023-24. “It is regrettable the players who represent the state(s) in this NFC (national football competition), there is no provision of TW3 test to determine the biological age...” FAO has written.

AIFF has accepted that Odisha did not break any rule, said Satyanarayan Muthyalu, the deputy secretary-general on Thursday. “For this year, birth certificate was the only proof of age for the junior national championship. We will try and introduce TW3 tests from next year.”

FAO has also written that the players allegedly overage stayed in AIFF’s centralized registration system, the overall pool of eligible players. And when selected by Odisha, those players could be added in the Competition Management System (CMS) before the junior national championship. “So the question is if the AIFF was aware of the same then how they allowed to register the so called over age players (sic),” Behera has asked.

“It was not part of CRS because birth certificates, and not TW3 specifications, were used for the junior national championship,” said Satyanarayan. The AIFF official acknowledged teething problems. “It is a logistical challenge to pull this off across youth leagues and 36 states for the sub-junior national championship but we had to make a start. From now, we should be able to inform states about players who fail age test. I am hopeful that in two years we will be able to significantly reduce age fraud.”