By Andrew Abah, Abuja
Only 14 U-23 home based players have been okayed by the Nigeria Football Federation to take part in the Olympic qualifier against Guinea after a thorough check on the information provided by the players while 16 of the players were caught to have been involved in age discrepancies.
Nigeria U23 Eagles head coach, Salisu Yusuf invited 30 Nigeria Professional Football League players who resumed training in Abuja last Monday ahead of the CAF U23 African Nations Cup qualifier against Guinea.
The age falsification was discovered last weekend when the team’s officials visited a department at the Nigeria Football Federation to cross check the age of the players. It was a rude shock when 16 out of the 30 invited players were discovered to have more than one birthday.
According to the NFF source who pleaded not to be mentioned said the age falsification were discovered when checks were carried out on the Transfer Matching System, some of the players had different date of births on their voters card, driver’s licences.
“When checks were carried out to know if none of them has issue with his age, we discovered that 16 players have either two or more birthdays they filled and submitted on different documents.
“It is very unfortunate that many of the good players we identified in the NPFL teams could not meet up the criteria. It is very funny that in this technological age, our players still falsify age.
“It is very embarrassing. I think our clubs should start paying more attention to the documents that players are filling out and submitting to them. This is very important because it will embarrass the country one of these days.”

Nigeria’s U23 Eagles will host Guinea in the last round of the CAF U23 African Nations Cup qualifier at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja on 22nd March before the return leg few days later.
