THE South Africa Schools Football Association (Sasfa) is winning the battle against the scourge of cheating in football, though some challenges remain.

This view was shared by Sasfa president and Safa vice-president Mandla Mazibuko at the conclusion of the Danone Under-12 national finals held in Reiger Park, near Boksburg, at the weekend.

Daniye Primary School were crowned champions and will be travelling to London to represent the country in the Danone Nations Cup world finals in September.

The school from Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, beat Siphumelele Primary from KwaZulu-Natal 3-1 on penalties to earn a rare privilege, and will come up against 31 nations at the tournament in Wembley.

"Cheating is still a bit of a challenge and it's not necessarily age-cheating. Some schools strengthen their teams with the best kids from other schools from their regions," said Mazibuko.

"Fortunately, we've been able to nip the problem in the bud using a basic but accurate and effective method. We prepared questionnaires with basic questions on their schools. In some instances two pupils from the same school would provide different answers when asked to name their school principal and that helped us to identity the cheats.

"Generally, we still have a problem with age-cheating in the country. Poor kids are forced to use wrong information provided by administrators who want to win at all costs. The problem is rife but we are watching it. We've had a huge 80% success rate in the last two years. But congratulations to all participating teams. They are all winners, having reached the finals."