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A few weeks before the commencement of the World Youth Soccer
Championship for U-17, Nigeria 2009, ex-Green Eagles winger, Adokiye Amiesimaka
caused quite a stir when he claimed that Nigeria’s team captain Fortune
Chukwudi was over-age.

Schools of thoughts came up with positions at variance on the
matter as to the timing, appropriateness or propriety of Amiesimaka’s action.
My reaction then and now is that the truth has only one version. Anytime it’s
told it remains the same. Amiesimaka was correct then, is still correct and will
always be correct, especially because of the negative impact of age-cheat on
our football.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) at the time stood facts on
its head and claimed Chukwudi was within the age limit. At the time, some said
bringing up such facts at that particular time was unpatriotic. For me
Amiesimaka did what he had to do to save our football from further decay and
rot. A little more introspection also reveals that the age-bending tactics has
superannuated our football and there is a strong need to return to grassroots
football development – the very essence of youth football as the conveyor belt
of the Super Eagles and the path to glory in world football.

In times past, Nigeria used to be able to ship her players in
droves to the big markets in Europe (England, Germany, Italy, Spain, France,
Holland and Belgium). Today we are unable to find Nigerian players commanding
good transfer fees. Austin Jay-Jay Okocha remains the highest Nigerian transfer
at $17 million. He has been beaten in Africa by Didier Drogba of Cote d’
Ivoire, Samuel Eto’o of Cameroun and Michael Essien of Ghana (the highest at
$32 million). No Nigerian has crossed $12 million in recent times and that is
because the talent pool is almost dried up.

Of thieving officials and
unscrupulous agents

There are many reasons for the decline. Unscrupulous player
agents, and thieving NFF officials, who are ready to sign-off grannies as U-17,
or U- 20 using “football age”. The “football age” of Nigerian players is at
least 6 years less than their real ages. This is not very good for their
playing careers as the peak age of a football player is 25-29 years, when they
can give value for money. By the time the average Nigerian is sold abroad for
the first time, he is already over 27 years with no chance of giving more than
two years before old age starts wreaking havoc on his career.

Europe is looking for young players that they can readily verify
their ages, and this search is slowing down on African players, where the issue
of overage players is the order of the day.

The way out of this problem is through the Academy system. This
is why European clubs are setting up partnerships with academies, in Asia and
Africa, so they can verify the ages of prospects and ensure optimal profit from
such players.

FIFA, the World football governing body, also encourages the
sale and transfer of players through the academies, as this is one sure way of
gaining on investment in youth football development.

The academies also offer a means of providing education for the
players, so it is not only their skills that are developed, but their intellect
as well. It becomes imperative for agencies, corporate organisations and
wealthy individuals to support and fund academies to be capable of nurturing
top rated football players, who can ply their trade in any part of the football
world beyond the tokenist support from near beggarly academies today.

The academies are sure to provide both academic and technical
education and skills in order to ensure a well rounded development of their
products and provide them the skills necessary for ensuring a well lived life
on and off the field of play, as well as when their active days are over.

I sign-off prescribing football Academies as the engines for
re-building Nigeria’s fortunes in football.

Next week I shall present my thoughts on the appointment of Samson Siasia as
the new Super Eagles Manager.