A court in Cotonou on Tuesday sentenced to imprisonment the players who had lied about their age and those responsible for this case, after the expulsion of Benin from the African Cup of Nations for under 17 years of 2019, AFP noted.

The former president of the Beninese Football Federation, Anjorin Moucharaf, was sentenced to 12 months of imprisonment, two of which were closed.

The latter - who spent two decades at the forefront of the Federation as president or vice president - had already been arrested in July 2011 for financial malfeasance before being relaxed later and return to his post.

Ten Cadet National Team players pinned in the same case were sentenced to six months' imprisonment, including one month.

Vicentia Boco, the head of the IRM center who had done the counter-expertise on the players benefited from a pure and simple relaxation, just like Moses Ekoué and Ibrahim Mama Chabi, members of the technical supervision. Other actors cited in this case, including a police officer and local elected officials, were for their part relaxed "for the benefit of the doubt" .

Many supporters and actors of football were present at the audience, very followed in Benin. Athanase Soton, head of a supporters' association, told AFP that "the sentence is lenient, but educational" .

In early September, Benin found itself excluded from the 2019 U-17 Nations Cup, after ten junior players lied about their age with the complicity of several leaders of the federation.

The players had been stopped by the police when they got off the plane, returning from Niamey where they had to take part in the qualifications of the U-17 CAN in Tanzania.

The new president of the Beninese Football Federation, Mathurin de Chacus, announced that he wanted to "put an end to corruption, improvisation and amateurism" in Beninese football.

Appointed late August at the head of an institution entangled in repeated scandals, he had filed a complaint against X and promised sanctions "very heavy" .

The country was totally suspended by FIFA in 2004, and several times threatened with such a sanction - rare in the world of football - between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, the junior team was prevented from participating in any competition and in December of the same year, the president of Benin Patrice Talon led a mediation aimed at setting up a Transitional Executive Committee to put an end to "a moribund football" .