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24 August 2009
Abuja — The Action Congress (AC) yesterday requested for an inquiry into the report suggesting that almost all members of the Nigerian Under-17 team preparing for the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup are over aged.
The party said it was particularly shocking and disappointing that the discovery happened about two months to the tournament to be hosted by Nigeria.
AC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, noted that the situation had given Nigeria little or no time to replace the over aged players.
Mohammed added that the country would as a result send a makeshift team to the competition to a tournament that is costing Nigeria's taxpayers billions of Naira to stage.
He said the investigation must also unravel the role played by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), particularly in the selection of the controversial Under-17 team.
He also recalled that Nigeria has previously been banned for fielding over-aged players in FIFA age-grade tournaments, wondering whether the country's officials have learnt any lesson at all.
Meanwhile, FIFA and CAF Executive Committee member, Dr. Amos Adamu, has disclosed that he warned those in charge of the Nigerian football authorities against age cheat and that FIFA has developed a technique that is capable of detecting ages of players.
Adamu, who spoke with sports writers in Ilorin, described the development as good for the game of football.
"FIFA has developed a technique that detects the correct ages of players and when I came back, I had to tell them to go and do it (age-test), warning them that if they don't do it they will be embarrassed. To be forewarned is to be forearmed," Adamu stated.
He went further to say that it is not fair to criticise the newly introduced age-test, saying the test has also been carried out on players in other parts of the World.
"It is not only in Nigeria that the test has been carried out. In Algiers, during the African Youth Championship, almost the entire Nigerien players were sent back home because they were found to be over-aged.
"If we had gone for the African qualifier, FIFA would have fished out over-aged players in our team. Now nobody can cheat," the football administrator said.
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