Nigeria to strike hard on age cheating in soccer

ABUJA   The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has instructed national team coaches to enforce the association’s zero-tolerance over age cheating.

Monday, April 02, 2012

ABUJA   The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has instructed national team coaches to enforce the association’s zero-tolerance over age cheating.President of the NFA Aminu Maigari gave the order on Friday at the closing of the CAF ‘B’ License and ‘B Equivalent’ Coaching Course, held at the National Stadium, Abuja. "We have decided that the days of win-at-all-cost are over,” he said."The age-grade competitions are actually for developmental purposes and we will ensure that players who feature for our junior teams are within the age bracket they play for,” he added. He dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the body had no respect for indigenous coaches and advised them to strive to improve on their standard, so as to be able to compete with their foreign counterparts favorably.Maigari lauded the contributions of Adegboye Onigbinde, Kashimawo Laloko, Monday Sinclair and coaches James Peters and Amodu Shuabiu to the successful organization of the coaching course. According to him, one of the factors identified for the falling standard of football in the country at the recent Senate public hearing is the inadequacies of Nigeria’s indigenous coaches.