Formula 1 world champion, Max Verstappen, has been mandated to do an activity with junior competitors in Rwanda after swearing in a news conference at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The punishment was slammed on Verstappen by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), or International Automobile Federation, the governing body for many international motor sports, including Formula 1.

According to reports, the world champion was ordered to complete some “work of public interest” for the transgression, a punishment he described as “ridiculous” at the time.

The FIA said after the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that Verstappen’s duty would coincide with its prize-giving in the African country’s capital next week.

The top three drivers in the F1 world championship are required by regulation to attend the end-of-season FIA prize-giving ceremony with Verstappen’s punishment tagged on to the mandatory trip.

“While in Kigali, Verstappen will undertake some work with junior competitors as part of the grassroots development programme organised by the Rwanda Automobile Club (RAC),” the FIA said in a statement.

“The activity will involve an FIA affordable cross car which was built locally in Rwanda by the RAC from blueprints provided by the FIA,” it added.

Verstappen’s penalty is along with a fine for Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for a similar offence at the Mexico City Grand Prix, led the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association to publish an open letter asking the FIA to treat them like adults.

The letter also criticised the FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who has caused widespread dismay in F1 at his actions this year, for his tone and language when addressing the topic.

A former Ghanaian footballer, Joseph Tagoe, has confessed to how reduced his age by 16 years so that he could join a foreign club and play professional football.

Tahoe, a former Hearts of Oak and Ebusua Dwarfs midfielder who was also known as Bobby Short in his playing days, recently narrated that he was already 35 years old when he reduced his age to 19 to enable him play professional football, but however, blamed his decision on poverty.

Tagoe who said the incident happened in 2017 when he received a call to join an U-19 team in Egypt, revealed how he almost lost his life because he reduced his age to play football with children he could have given birth to.

The former player who had one time played for Sharks Football Club in Nigeria, said he couldn’t resist the offer from the Egyptian club and had to falsify his age.

“I was home and received a call from Francis Martey that the Egyptian side wanted an under-19 player. Looking at my height, I said okay,” Tagoe said during an interview with ATV.

“At that time, I was recovering from an injury and training regularly. He saw I was doing well, so I had to change my passport to 19 years. In reality, I was around 34 or 35 years old. This is what poverty can make you do. The system is also not fair to us,” he added.

But, according to the former football player, things didn’t go as planned as he couldn’t cope with the rigours of the training that the U-19 teams were subjected to.

While recounting the unfortunate experience, Tagoe said he almost lost his life in the process as he had to train with both the senior and junior teams, which proved to be very challenging as age was fast catching up on him already.

To add to the trauma, he said he also had to dye his hair regularly each morning to conceal the grey hair that had started growing.

“I would have died if I hadn’t taken care of myself. They said I was more mature than the kids, so they made me train with both the senior team and the U-20s. The U-20s required a lot of running, and I always felt dizzy after training. It was clear my age was catching up with me.

“My grey hair was already showing, so I always carried dye with me and dyed my hair every morning. But I decided to leave because I would have died. Even if they had asked me to reduce my age to 15, I would have done it. There are many players like me in similar situations,” he said.