RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 21 - Former Brazilian World Youth Cup winner Carlos Alberto was banned for 360 days by a disciplinary tribunal on Tuesday for falsifying his date of birth to cut five years off his real age.

Carlos Alberto, who plays for first division Figueirense, had already admitted to age fraud, saying that he had been driven to do it by poverty and hunger.

The player, whose real age is 28 and not 23 as previously believed, was in the Brazil team which won the world under-20 championship in the United Arab Emirates in December 2003 when he would have been nearly 26.

"I don't think the penalty was fair because he did this out of necessity, so that he could play football," Figueirense's representative Marcio Bittencourt said after the hearing.

Carlos Alberto, who has been the driving force in mid-table Figueirense's midfield and had been linked with a possible move to Brazilian champions Sao Paulo, did not attend.

He had faced a maximum ban of 720 days.

The case broke on November 7 when the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper reported that the player, full name Carlos Alberto de Oliveira Junior, was born exactly five years before his declared date of birth of January 24, 1983.

Figueirense, who were not punished, immediately suspended him pending investigations.

In a television interview the following day, the player said he was told in 2000 he was good enough to try for a professional career, which represented a chance to escape from poverty.

He accepted an offer from a friend who said he could get fake documents to cut five years off Carlos Alberto's age and kick-start his career.

LUXEMBURGO CASE

"My family was very poor and it was a chance to give them something," said Carlos Alberto.

"It was a chance for me to make a living....I was hungry.

"I am 28, not 23."

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