The success of Pirates junior teams over the years has been blighted by allegations of age cheating that KICK OFF magazine reported on extensively last year, going as far as gathering evidence of the accused age cheats. However, though KICK OFF magazine exposed the evidence to prove there were alleged age cheats in the Pirates Under-15 team that won the Nike Premier Cup last year, there was little done by both the club and the organisers at the time. But Khoza has now raised his concerns and admitted to the syndrome that is typical of junior football not only in the country but across the continent. "We are doing an audit to be sure that the players that we have are of the proper ages so that we are sure that we are nurturing is the right talent. We must not close the door for the talent that requires the opportunity and is of the right age. We don't want to use our resources on age cheats who will not benefit the country and the club," Khoza says. Augusto Palacios, the technical director of the club's development, is currently caretaker coach of the first team, which has Tlou Segolela as the only development product who gets regular game-time. _quote Khoza says though they want to have more development products in the senior team they want to sort out age cheating first.
"We want to do that [have more development players in the first team] but there are some things that are worrying to some of us. We would want to be sure that the ages that we have are the right ages because you cannot have players that are winning championships but when you want to see them progressing in the League then they fall on the wayside. So therefore the mechanism or technology to assist us in finding the age of players is going to make me more excited. "Just winning trophies for the sake of winning trophies is not exciting for me. I want to see those players progressing to the national team level then I will be happy that we are developing players. What is a worry for me is the age cheating that we are still investigating is rife. For me I don't get excited about winning trophies but if you have won with the players of the right ages then I will be excited because those players will progress beyond our expectations. If they don't do that then it is a waste of time," says Khoza. Pirates have dominated junior football competition winning four Under-15 Premier Cups in the last five years, but all players from those teams haven't made any significant progress.
Your comments on this story...
Age cheating is everyone's problem even Kaizer Chiefs closed down their development because age cheating was a major problem. Morons will follow with their comments and show how dumb they're...
They Big team acted on the issue a long time ago and Der Kaizer was labeled and he was classified being broke. I wonder what Messiah Khoza's stance would be now?
Don't forget to organize Lucky Lekgwati's pension papers when dealing with the age cheats cause he didn't fake his but the team is in love with Grandpa's.
Who is Benni recommending to retire there this time?
Khoza can sommer shut down the institute once, he's breeding iy'dididi ezgugile and not players mos.
Hahahahahaha...........the trend setters cleaned their house ages ago, excuse the pun.
Mduduzi Nyanda
Siyabonga Zulu
Cyril Mashego
Mnguni
Mxoyana
Brighton Mhlongo
Pirates cant take the hole development team and use it in PSL. Age cheating is there and no victory will be sweeting if it was achieved by cheating. Pirates really need to take astand and get rid of over age players.
Now 1 2 3 sing Khoza worshipers sing............
They Big team acted on the issue a long time ago and Der Kaizer was labeled and he was classified being broke. I wonder what Messiah Khoza's stance would be now?
Don't forget to organize Lucky Lekgwati's pension papers when dealing with the age cheats cause he didn't fake his but the team is in love with Grandpa's.
Who is Benni recommending to retire there this time?
@Faka i-safety belt ku driver Kaizer Manje,
What you dont realise is that its not all players who are age cheat. There are many who use their real age, so clossing down the development structures is no solution. Pirates have strict processes to verify the documents from schools to home affairs but even that is not enough as people can fake the papers. Thats why Khoza is looking at including technology which will be used together with what is already being used.
And as you predicted, the retarded comments did follow, especially from those whose team finished this season with a trophy cabinet full of cobwebs
Five trophies in four seasons, yet none graduated to the first team, that's horrible!
Khoza can sommer shut down the institute once, he's breeding iy'dididi ezgugile and not players mos.
@Sweyts,
Pirates is not a small team. Its difficult for players to break into the senior team. There is pressure to win all the games all the times. This is not Kaizer chiewawa or Sundom Fc, I am talking about a huge team here. Even though few graduate to senior team, we have plenty of players that we developed now playing in the small (Pirates Soccer League) PSL teams e.g. Nale, Mateba (Both Chiembabwe), Cheeseboy (Sunflops), Phungwayo (Wits), Nyanda, Thwala(platinum stars)etc just to name but a few. in the big Mighty Team, you have Tlou and Manyisa doing their thing.
This is what they can do best. Age cheaters, I wonder why it is 98% happening at Bucs...
@Hangwanie,
Where do you get 98%? Well it was happening 100% at Kaizer chimps farm thats why Guluva had to shut down the whole thing.
Follow the leader(khosi) and dissolve the whole thing and start from scratch with legimate ID documents. also check the likes of manyisa, um sure he's around 45yrs old.
After that, build a training complex and stop training next to a bus station..embarrasing!