The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF has insisted that none of the 21 footballers currently representing the country at the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates is overage.
The NFF’s clarification comes on the heels of the claims made by Iran’s coach, Ali Doustimehr that Nigeria is parading overage players at the tournament.
Nigeria outclassed Iran 4-1 in the Round of 16 at the tournament on Tuesday but Doustimehr was insistent that his wards lost to players older than 17.
The NFF has now officially reacted to Doustimehr’s accusations insisting that “not one player” in the Nigeria squad is overage.
“I can tell you that not one player from our U17 squad is overage. They all went thoughMagnetic Resonance Imaging, MRI scans before the tournament and those who failed the tests were dropped,” chairman of the NFF’s Technical Committee, Barrister Chris Green told supersport.com.
Nigeria will meet Uruguay in the quarter finals of the competition on Saturday.
The Golden Eaglets have been in impervious form at the tournament. Manu Garba’s charges are the joint top scorers in the competition with 18 goals racked up in 4 games.
Nigeria has won the FIFA U-17 title three times previously.