JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia — The FIBA-Asia U-16 Men’s Championship have yet to start, but some quarters have raised the possibility of some countries fielding players over the age limit.

In the team managers’ meeting at the New York Hotel here late Wednesday, executives of three Middle East countries complained that some teams are set to field over-aged players to win this tournament that serves as the qualifying stage for the Fiba U-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany next year.

Officials from Jordan, Syria and Kuwait also requested Fiba Asia secretary general Dato Yeoh Choo Hock to conduct bone examination among suspected athletes.

They cited the incident in football where FIFA caught Nigeria fielding three players playing above the prescribed age limit in the recent FIFA U-17 World Cup.

Save for passport verification, Fiba Asia doesn’t have a strict screening process.

No particular country was mentioned, but insiders claimed that China reportedly brought its U-19 squad instead of fielding boys born after 1993.

Parading a towering squad with an average height of 6-foot-4, China is in Group A together with two Middle East countries, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

“Everybody was worried about possible age-cheating,” said Nokia U-16 Team Pilipinas manager Joel Lopa, who represented the country in the two-hour meeting along with Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) competitions committee chairman Bernie Atienza.

The Nationals already met the Chinese in a series of exhibition matches in China last June and in the Fiba 33 competition of the Asian Youth Games in Singapore last July.