Coach hopes age won’t disqualify Olympic players

Sports Reporter

Following the recent announcement that the Olympic Games that were scheduled for July 24 to August 9 have been postponed for next year owing to the Covid-19 pandemic; national Under-23 coach David Notoane hopes players who will turn 24 will be allowed to play.

There have been concerns that players who turn 24 next year may not be allowed to participate in the global tournament.

Meanwhile Fifa has called for the tournament to change the under-23 age limit to under-24 to allow the players who qualified their teams to the event to compete.

Notoane said he assumes that the same age group will be carried over to the tournament. “I don’t anticipate an age change, especially since the organisers requested to continue with 2020 and not make it 2021. One feels that the players who were born in 1997 should be allowed to participate. But should things go otherwise, on the list of 78 players I submitted to Sascoc there are players who were born in 1998 and 1999, and there are also those who were born in 2001. This allows looking deeper into the talent at our disposal to reach the final squad,” Notoane said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has not indicated whether they will change the format to under-24.