As Nigerians continue to react to the dismal outing of the Flying Eagles in the ongoing FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland, a former Super Falcons assistant coach, Mansur Abdullahi has the national U-20 team’s failure on age falsification.
Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, the former Warri Wolves coach said the problem with age grade national teams in Nigeria is age falsification as he maintained that most players deliberately under declare their age to fit into the teams.
He said in Europe youth championships are seen as developmental programmes but in Nigeria, they are considered as do or die affair.
The assistant Secretary General of Nigerian Football Coaches Association, therefore called on the Nigeria football federation to learn to keep records of players to curtail incidence of age falsification by players.
“It is disappointing. I am a Nigerian and a coach so I am not good at condemning fellow coaches. However, the moment I watched the team play against Qatar, I didn’t see high quality football from the team.
“Nigerians should learn be patient. Look at the American team in Poland, they are below 20 years. We don’t keep records here. In Nigeria you see a player who is 25 or 30 years, he will tell you he is U-17.
“In Europe there are records. Does NFF have records of players?. In Europe players graduate from one stage to another but in Nigeria, even developmental championships are seen as do or die,” said Abdullahi.
