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DR Congo were scheduled to play their first game against Cameroon - another team that have been implicated in age fraud scandals - on 12 January.
Barley a day to start their qualifying matches, the Under-17 team of the Democratic Republic of Congo have been forced to pull out of the regional qualifying tournament for 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations.
This comes after Cameroon were forced to replace 30 of 32 players that failed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) age tests ordered by the country's football FA president, Samuel Eto'o.
The Central African Football Federation's Union (UNIFFAC) qualifiers starting on January 12, serves as the qualification path for the U-17 AFCON which holds in Algeria from April 8 to April 30.
Twenty-five fail DR Congo's MRI test
DR Congo alongside four other teams were scheduled in Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Chad and Central African Republic to take part in UNIFFAC's qualifiers with the top two teams, proceeding to April's Under-17 Nations Cup in Algeria.
However, unlike Cameroon which had time to replace 30 of the 32 players who failed their tests, DR Congo will be forced to sit out of the tournament after 25 out of 40 players failed mandatory age testing.
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DR Congo were scheduled to play their first game against Cameroon on 12 January.
What has been said about the development?
"The FECOFA has decided to withdraw the U-17 selection from the Zonal U-17 Tournament of UNIFFAC planned in Limbe in Cameroon," the Federation Congolese de Football Association (FECOFA) said in an official statement.
This means that only Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Chad and Central African Republic will now take part in the qualifying competition, something that UNIFFAC called 'a nightmare'.
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Speaking to BBC Sport Africa, the official said, "It's an organisational nightmare because we have to quickly come up with a new format that will involve four nations instead of the original five.
"We are happy that after the MRI scans, all four nations now have a team."
Meanwhile, Cameroon will be looking to get past the qualifiers and defend their title in Algeria. They are the defending champions of the U-17 AFCON having won the last edition in 2019.
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