On the back of the latest age scandal to rock the Golden Eaglets, a top official has told SCORENigeria that the target now is for Nigeria to forget about winning, but at least feature at next month’s U17 AFCON qualifiers rather than to be disqualified for fielding an ineligible player.
This comes after 40 of 60 selected players failed an MRI age test ahead of next month’s U17 AFCON qualifiers in Benin Republic.
And CAF have made it very clear that unlike previous competitions, should a player be considered not eligible on the basis of age, his country as a whole will also be thrown out of tournament.
“Because of this result and with only three weeks to the big kick–off in Benin Republic, it only follows that it will be better for the team to just take part in the qualifying tournament rather than scout for more players in a bid to fortify the team of the 20 players who passed,” a top official told SCORENigeria
“Who says that getting another set of 20 new players to undergo the age test will guarantee a better team.
“Nigeria have won this tournament at world level five times, that’s a great record.
“But as it now stands, we should be happy to just take part in the qualifiers not minding what the results will be.
“It will be a lot more honourable and acceptable to play the qualifiers with the boys who passed than to be disqualified altogether because a player was considered too old for the competition.”
Ur comment came short of a novice in football. So if the remaining 20 players are mostly attackers or of one or two department based, what happens. They just take them?. The screening just ended a while ago, they shld have records. Let them tap into the records, get a few more players in the department they are short and do the MRI on them immediately and add to the team. Nothing has spoilt yet