Botswana, Comoros, Eswatini and Zimbabwe were all disqualified from the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Under-17 Championship in South Africa for "age-cheating".

Organisers said the four nations had breached the eligibility rules of the tournament, the winners of which qualify for the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations.

Their expulsion forced organisers to restart the event with four teams - Angola, Malawi, Zambia and hosts South Africa.

Four matches had taken place before the reset of the tournament.

The expelled countries are also banned from taking part in the next two editions in the Under-17 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying competition.

The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZFA) has appealed the decision.

"The disqualification of Botswana, Comoros Islands, Eswatini and Zimbabwe from the 2020 COSAFA Men’s Under-17 Championship on the basis of fielding overage players has forced a reset of the competition," COSAFA said in a statement.

"The Confederation of African Football Youth Competitions Committee made the decision to disqualify the teams from the zonal qualifier tournament for the 2021 Africa Under-17 Cup of Nations.

"The quartet all had, at least, one player fail their magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that were conducted in the Host Country prior to the start of the competition. 

"The tournament regulations are very clear in this instance."

A spokesperson for the ZFA told South African newspaper The Southern Times that the team was not guilty of wrongdoing and urged the COSAFA to reveal the name of the ineligible player.

In the revised format, the four countries are battling it out in a round-robin group, with the top two nations progressing to Saturday's (November 29) final.

Zambia are top of the group after two matches, with South Africa in second.