Brazil risk ban from World Cup

RIO DE JANEIRO, OCT 20: Record four-times winners Brazil fear they may be disqualified from taking part in the 2002 World Cup because a player from their country lied about his age at a South American youth event, local media reports said. The reports yesterday said that striker Sandro Hiroshi had played at the Under-17 South American Championships in 1997 by using forged documents.

Hiroshi, who is of Japanese descent, was born November 19, 1979, which would have made him too old for the event. But his player’s licence and other documents he presented at the tournament in Paraguay gave 1980 as his birth date.

A similar incident cost Mexico participation at the 1988 Olympics and 1990 World Cup.

The reports said that Brazil’s only hope was that unlike the Mexican case no officials from the Brazilian federation were involved in the deception, which was seemingly carried out by Hiroshi and his then club Rio Branco.