The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has decided to exempt teams playing in state-level tournaments and national championships from the Tanner Whitehouse 3 (TW3) age verification criteria for a year, Goal has learnt. The decision was taken at the Executive Committee meeting on July 9, 2019.
In July 2018, the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) Executive Committee met in Mumbai and one of the decisions taken at the meeting was the implementation of TW3 method for all age-group competitions in India.
Although the state teams will now no longer use the TW3 method for a year, professional clubs taking part in the Indian age-group leagues (Junior, Sub-Junior and Elite Leagues) conducted by AIFF will have to continue the existing arrangement. It must be noted that national teams also use MRI scans instead of the TW3 method.
The TW3 method uses X-Rays of the left hand and wrist to examine the skeletal maturity of a person and thereby determine their bone age. The bone age obtained from the result of this test would then be the sole criterion to determine players' eligibility in age-group tournaments, as opposed to chronological age which was the yardstick until the 2017-18 season.
The new method was criticised by several clubs and AIFF officials, including Executive Committee member Anjali Shah. In January this year, as many as 16 clubs in Mumbai alone had come together in an effort to let both the state association and the Indian FA know their concerns.