Nigerians Dropped from Squad for Lying About Age

Nigeria have dropped 15 players from their Under-17 World Cup squad, following tests to determine the ages of team members.

Nigeria are the hosts of the tournament, which kicks off at the end of October. The Golden Eaglets, as Nigeria's U-17 team is known, play in a group against Germany, Argentina and Honduras

The move to test the players came after football's world governing body FIFA announced plans to carry out tests during the tournament itself.

Coach John Obuh now has a squad of 23 players remaining for the event.

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) spokesman Ademola Olajire told the BBC the move to drop the 15 had been taken after the results of the tests were discovered.

"The decision was taken because the NFF was concerned with the preservation of Nigeria's good image," said Olajire.

NFF President Sani Lulu Abdullahi said the decision to drop the players would not prevent Nigeria from the defending the title they won in South Korea two years ago.

"We had 38 players in camp and some of them failed [age tests]," he was quoted as saying.

"[But] that does not mean that we do not have a team that will represent us at the World Cup - we still have a good team."

Nigeria have won the Under-17 World Cup three times, in 1985, 1993 and 2007.

(Story from the BBC)

MY POV: Wow, tough luck. But does this also shed bad light on Nigeria's past performances in '85, '93 and '07? Could some players from those squads have also lied about their ages?

I mean, 15 of 38 players were older than 17 ... how old were they, anyways? 28? 29?

Bad ... real bad ...

Mourinho Causes Stir in Nigeria

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has long been a strong advocate of African football, buying the rights to such players as Ghana's Michael Essien and Nigeria's Salomon Kalou at Chelsea and Ghana's Sulley Muntari at Inter. 

Now, the Special One is in Nigeria as a special guest of the Kwara Football Academy (KFA). And his three-day visit is causing a major frenzy among Nigeria's soccer-mad followers.

Fans turned up to greet the former Chelsea boss and the rest of the delegation despite the fact that he arrived two hours later than announced.

"It is a great landmark in the history of Nigerian football as well as the KFA," Nkechi Obi, CEO of Premium Sports Marketing Services told BBC Sport.

"He is here with other coaches and trainers to conduct seminars and coaching clinics for indigenous coaches. We are positive that his presence will benefit the talented players in the academy and hopefully attract interest from international clubs throughout the world. Football fans, media and everyone involved with football will enjoy photograph and autograph sessions with the 'Special One' on this trip."

The trip facilitated by DanJan Sports is widely seen as an opportunity to expose the Kwara Football Academy to the rest of the world.

"The KFA epitomizes what a perfect football academy truly is and Gestafute are happy to be associated with them," David Omigie of DanJan Sports explained.

"We have seen what the visit of Manchester United and Portsmouth gave to Nigeria as a country in the past. The coming of Mourinho and KFA will bring a lot of positive attention to football in the country once again.

Former Nigeria coach Clemens Westerhof is the director of the Kwara Football Academy which is in Ilorin, the capital of Nigeria's Kwara State.

MY POV: Love the work Mourinho has done in Nigeria and the exposure his visit gives to African football. For more on the Kwara Football Academy, please visit their website.