I-man:

The essence of the Under-17 competitions,is to groom players for the future.What is point if our "players for the future" are geriatric cheats most of who will never be heard of in years to come.

All the Under-17 world cups Ghana and Nigeria have been winning,what good has it done us?We are just sabotaging our future with this short term narrow mindedness

The reasons are quite simple:
After winning they get snatched up by European clubs - where they think they are bigger than their country.

Most of them are afraid of injury - they don't want to lose their place at their clubs - so they don't play with dedication when playing for their country.

The third is an NFA-generated problem. They don't allow them to grow together, nations cup 2008, some of them will join the senior team, while those who are currently growing with the senior teams are dropped.

To me its a straight forward choice.Do we want to develop players for the future so that we can compete at the main World Cup or do we want to continue cheating our way to victory in youth  competitions?

We can't have it both ways.If we feel we can never win the main World Cup and hence we have to win the youth competitions even with foul means,then nobody should complain when next we fail to even qualify for the World Cup.

An effective and honest youth programme is one of the ingredients of creating a strong national team,age cheats don't help our long term prospects.

Ever wondered why the highest level we've ever attained at the World Cup is just the Round of 16?  The reason couldn't be far-fetched!

two awards for santus, e no easy

@ champredd

champredd:

The reasons are quite simple:
After winning they get snatched up by European clubs - where they think they are bigger than their country.

Most of them are afraid of injury - they don't want to lose their place at their clubs - so they don't play with dedication when playing for their country.

The third is an NFA-generated problem. They don't allow them to grow together, nations cup 2008, some of them will join the senior team, while those who are currently growing with the senior teams are dropped.

As logical as your points are, they still don't justify the age cheat inherent in the Nigerian football.  Are you saying that if a real U-17 was to play in this tournament, he wouldn't be picked by the big clubs in Europe?

Check the pic posted above by smile4kenn, is that face older than that of a typical 17yr-old in Nigeria?

Definitely!

Wrong

champredd:

The reasons are quite simple:
After winning they get snatched up by European clubs - where they think they are bigger than their country.

In the 60s,70s and 80s when most Nigerian players were playing for domestic clubs,what were we achieving?It is because our players get to play at Europe,that our national team has some measure of respectability.Having cheated their way to success at youth level,how is it any of their business whether they are doing the right thing for their country?

Most of them are afraid of injury - they don't want to lose their place at their clubs - so they don't play with dedication when playing for their country.

Is it fear of injury that has stopped African teams going past the Q/F of the World Cup?Given that we and Ghana have won the U17 tourney 5 times,you would think we will produce players good enough to get past the 2nd round of the World Cup.

The third is an NFA-generated problem. They don't allow them to grow together, nations cup 2008, some of them will join the senior team, while those who are currently growing with the senior teams are dropped.

This is self-defeating.They can't grow together if some of them are 28 and some 25 or 20.If all were 17 or 16 years old,we can talk of them growing together but that doesn't arise if with age differences,some never  mature while others will mature.Some of those boys might be at the peak of their career,i.e they will never get better than this

The solution to all this is to stick with teenagers,that way they can grow together and still have long careers ahead of them.

Check out the Brazillian team at 1996 Olympic and compare with the teams played at France 98, and Korea/Japan 02 and then compare with Nigeria and you will understand my gist.

It is not a new thing that nigerians are always fraudulent with the age of players they parade in such events.

Its so obvious that the yougest player on that squad is not less than 22yrs.

Abeg Purist,find something else to say rather than accusing these guyz.Afterall NFA knows some of them are older than 17 but still present them for the tournament,if na you shey you go tell FIFA say you old pass 17 ni?

Wow am so so happy 4 these lads.
So from now onwards its more glory 4 d nation on the world of sports.

Am not so sure if anyone is also sharing the same thought with a friend of mine saying "maybe its because of the heads of our past leaders since the last 8yrs that made us to b settling with always Bronze and Silver"

HIP HIP HIP HURRAY, I AM SO HAPPY DAT WE WON, THOSE LADS R GUD, gawwwddddd, THEY MENTAINED A 100% PERFAMCE, NO LOSS NO DRAW, WHAT A TEAM, LOL, I AM SO SO EXCITED ABT D WHOLE TIN, DEY R GUD, I AM PROUD OF DEM, M PROUD 2 B A NIGERIAN, UYP NIGERIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


YAR ADUA IS A GUD PRESIDO, THIS IS TO SHOW DT D HAVE A GUD HEAD, A LUCKY 1 @ DAT, NT DAT OLD BAD LUCK WEY LOCK ALL OUR LUCK FOR PADLOCK HIDE AM FROM HIM BRAIN BT NO YAR ADUA DON OPEN AM, NIGEIRIAN WILL WIN GHANA 2008, NA WETIN GO ALWAYS HAPEN B DAT

I LOVE THESE GUYS, INSHORT I DON HAV MY FAVOURITE PLAYER, ALL DEM ARE GUD, AHHHHHHM, ITS BIN A LONG TIME DT NIGERIA PRODUCE DIS KIND OF SQUAD, FROM DEFENDERS, ATTACKERS N ALL THEY JUST TOOOOOO MUCH

UP NIGERIA!!!!!!!!!!!!

UP UNDER 17, WE R D BEST

i blive the predient is gona reawrd dem handsomely for ther gud work

Check this out!

i am happy for the boys, this age reduction thingy is not just among footballers. politicians, civil servants, and just about everybody else is doing it in Nigeria. while that doesnt make it right, we should remember these boys grew up to meet that culture. dont blame them!

Campeones Campeones ole ole ole

yes ooooooooooooooooo
those boys wan kill me for second half but dey came thru in d end.
UP NAiJAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
May this be d beginning of gr8er things to come in football and every other area

Up EAGLETSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

So nice to see nairaland users having fun without arguments (online)death threats, Football go do wonders,

whats all these chants about cheating about?
Will you separate football from the pathetic decay in our socio-econimic structure.

a country where the speaker will renovate a well built apartment for more than 600million and shes meant to be the arrowhead of those making laws for 9ja-
a country where the best brains are running abroad for menial jobs
a country where thieves are celebrated
a country where nothing works

please, allow these bois savour their hard earned victory. Its not only 9ja and Ghana that their victories in the age group competitions hasnt translated to success at the senior level. Spain has won the u-20 competition more than once and i dont think theyve played at the semis of the senior world cup.

1-man leave these bois alone. the whole system is messed up not only our furbol!!

heyyyyyyyyyyyyy i'm very happy & proud to be greennnnnnnn whiteeeeeeeee greennnnnnnnnnnnnn how sey we no go fit winnn. common, we are the world championnnnnnnnnnn,

d system is so messed up so why blame the boys, leave matter jo, As far as am concerned those boys are U17 until somebody proves otherwise,

hello all,
all de age stuff me no concern me i am not a football person, the bpttom line for me is the answer to this question how do we translate the boys cohesiveness, determination and discipline into our world cup and other aspect of our life as a nation.

but una see wetin i see- one gold medal was missing or was held hostage. the last nigeria guy medal.

if na naija we go done de say we lack planning as if other countries no de make mistake.

O ga oooooooooo .Nigerian.You people can complain.If Nigeria did not win,Its another story you guys would be saying.Nigeria won now,you guys claim the players are not under 17.Someone even said the least there is 22,I am not arguing with you guys but the fact still remains that Nigeria is not only guilty of this.Other countries do it.So why the stress or una get beef with the players?

If Nigeria no win Una go complain
Nigeria win Una still dey complain



What do you guys actually want gangan?

whats ur point?

I-man,
While one is not trying to say that cheating is a good thing,yet I think we should try to savuor the joy of victory before we start trying to rub the shine off our victory.
If we look at it critically,I dont content that many of these boys will be older than they claim but what is the point in crying fowl now when many people in the country today have official age and then real age.These boys are the product of their society.Many of us who stick to our real age as the official age are seen as wierd.On the other hand many people dont really believe my age when I TELL THEM BECAUSE THEY SAY i look older than my age.Is it not possible some of these boys may be like that.I saw a 16yr old in my consulting room the other day but he could have passed for a 20 something year old.

Moreover ,on the issue of getting talents for the national teams,I think we have had our own share of it.Both Kanu and Oruma were in Japan 93 as unber 17 and they are still going on strong 14yrs after.Yobo Joseph wa in Nigeria 95 as under 20 and he is still going strong.Along the way people may lose form for other reasons other than age as in the case of Bechamp and Ronaldo for some time.At the same time,some people's attitude make them lose form like in the case of Etim Esin of old.Some may even feel they have arrive and shun the country like Ayegbeni did at some point or even Babayaro.At the same time other players that were not opportuned to play at the age grade competition may hit form later and displace these boys.So the whole thing is a complex thing.

No matter  there real age if people can still give 10-15yrs in the senior team then we have not failed.
Moreover,when FIFA banned Nigeria the other time it was worded as 'inconsistency in the age of players'.Remember the Saudi team that beat us in the quarter final some years ago?they were really looking very old.Many countries are also involve in these things.

Be that as it may,we should not be making sweeping/unconfirmed allegations like these on the internet because the whole world seem to be against us so why should we join them in bringing ourselves down.

WE ARE NOT THE MOST CORRUPT IN THE WORLD.We are a good people with many examples of real,truthful and worthy people.I choose to see the right things and not the wrong.

@Mayorking
i agree with u brother. if we were sent out at the group stage, i-man will be here to call for the head of TElla. let me enjoy this victory before you put sand sand in this thing.

Abi oo. Let the party continue, when was d last time Nigerians enjoyed victory like dis

hey somebody tell me. . what's the mood like in naija? What was the reaction at the end of the game. I know it must be awesome. I wish I could be there now.

i tire oo!

i think its so funny how some of these nigerians run their ulgy- smelly mouth sometimes. These are the people that argue day and night that the Argentines were gona beat them down, the same people talked about how strong the Spanish side were.

Now me being Superman as i will always be has once again proven some of you wrong im afraid. Ppl that never ever being to football pitch talk so much crap in the contex of technicality .

what next now! age cheat ? huh

like i said the cup is on its way to aso rock!

and for those that speak english as a 5th language with incredible accent i hope at this juncture the grammar above is fair enough understandable

still me!

to god be the glory, unleash the bottles. i'm proud to be a nigeriannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn haahahhahhahhahhahhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.