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South African Under-23 head coach David Notoane has welcomed the recommendation by a Fifa working group to raise the age limit for the Olympic Games men’s football competition to 24 after the event was postponed by a year.
While professionals are allowed in the men’s tournament, the initial rules restricted teams to players no older than 23, with the exception of three overage players, while there is no age limit for the women’s tournament.
On Friday, a Fifa-Confederations Working Group, which was established by the Bureau of the Fifa Council to address the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, recommended that the competition remain open to players born on or after January 1 1997, as originally planned.
This would ensure that players such as South Africa’s captain Tercious Malepe and vice-skipper Teboho Mokoena – who both turn 24 next year – have an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of representing their country at the Olympics.
The Games have retained the Tokyo 2020 name.
Notoane is excited about the prospect of including the two under the amended regulations following the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics from July 24 to August 9 this year to July 21 to August 7 next year.
Chippa United defender Malepe and SuperSport United midfielder Mokoena lead a group of regular players who helped South Africa qualify for the multi-coded Games.
The two are part of the provisional squad of 78 players that Notoane submitted to the SA Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee in February.
“There was no other anticipation. It’s a very obvious welcome recommendation and I hope the Fifa Council will approve it. But we would have still taken them as overage players, but that would have comprised our plans to utilise that space of overage players,” Notoane told City Press yesterday.
The team can now select up to three overage players in the final squad of 22.
Notoane had already named Bafana Bafana players Percy Tau, Thembinkosi Lorch and Themba Zwane among the seasoned campaigners.
Meanwhile, this edition could be Malepe’s second bite at an Olympics experience as he was part of coach Owen Da Gama’s team that took part in the 2016 Games in Brazil.
This will be South Africa’s third appearance at the Games after they qualified alongside Egypt and Ivory Coast as Africa’s three representatives at the global showpiece.
The draw was initially planned to take place in Japan this month, but teams will have to wait a little longer due to Covid-19.
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