Excerpts from Vanguard Newspaper sport pages on Nigerian sport titled "NFF sacks over-aged Eaglets" below is an except on the article.
In
line with its avowed policy of whittling away age cheats from its under-aged
national teams, no player from the Nigerian Premier League is among the list of
players for the second phase closed camping of the Golden Eaglets that opened
in Calabar on Monday.
This
development has ruled out players such as Gombe United’s Mustapha
Babadidi, Segun Alebiosu of Kwara United amongst others from the list of
prospective players under consideration for the National Under -17 Team in
spite of the fact that they were reportedly within the stipulated age bracket.
Nigeria
Football Federation (NFF), Director, Technical, Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme who is in
Calabar for the smooth take-off of the closed camping exercise,
said the shut-out order of Premier League players from the Golden Eaglets
is imperative. He noted that it was a positive development and should be
seen as a genuine effort on the part of the NFF at developing new stars as well
as the federation’s commitment at eradicating age cheats. The 40 players
selected for the closed camping exercise were drawn from those that took part
in the first phase screening exercise last March.
Top
on the list of players already camped at the posh Princeville Hotel camp
is Muazzam Ibrahim who was tagged ‘ New Kanu’ by Supervising Sports Minister,
Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi when he played an unscheduled visit during the team’s
screening exercise at the FIFA Goal Project Package B Site in Abuja.
Also
included are players from the National Under-15 team, top-rated youth
tournaments such as the Shell Cup and Copa Coca-Cola as well as players from
soccer academies scattered all over the country.
Officials
maintained that this second phase closed camping is strictly for invited
players to enable them demonstrate their abilities as the team
intensifies efforts to represent the country in the forthcoming
African Under-17 Youth Championship to be hosted in Morocco next year.
Read a detailed account of the story here.
Would it be right to say that the NFF has finally woken up to their responsibility of tackling age cheat in Nigerian football?
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