The under-20 national team, Flying Eagles’ coaching crew have reportedly dropped two goalkeepers and two other players on account of discrepancies noticed in the ages they presented in their documents, megasportsarena.com reports.
Both goalkeepers and all other players affected in the purge are said to be registered with clubs in the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL), but controversies were spotted when they ages were cross-checked on arrival last weekend in the national youth camp.
Bosso and his crew have stepped up their training programme at FIFA Goal Project training pitch in Abuja, as they intensify preparations for this month’s West African Football Union (WAFU) B African U-20 Cup of Nations qualifiers in Lome, Togo.
The zonal competition, which will kick off on November 14 and end on December 2, serves as qualifiers for the 2021 U20 AFCON in Mauritania, and Bosso, who took Nigeria to the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Canada, wants to help the seven-time winners scale through Group B, where they will tango Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire.
The Flying Eagles whose last victory in the championship was in Senegal in 2015 under the tutelage of Coach Manu Garba will kick-off their campaign on November 19 against the Junior Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire at Stade Municipal in Lome.
They will then round up their group fixtures with a potentially explosive clash with perennial rivals Ghana on November 22, while the host nation, Togo, will compete in Group A alongside Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Burkina Faso.
The two finalists will qualify for the main tournament, which will involve 12 teams and Bosso, who was last month named head coach by Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), 11 years after he was dismissed from the position, ultimately wants to qualify for the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia.
It would be a case of de ja vu and target of better tidings for Bosso, who curried controversy when he made allegations of racism against English referee, Howard Webb after the Flying Eagles lost to Chile at the quarter-final stage at Canada 2007.
Although fined by the world football ruling body, FIFA, the outspoken coach continued in the job, but was dismissed two years after his team only managed to finish third at the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Rwanda; such that Bosso will be eager to make amends this time out.
Consequently, two shot-stoppers and two other players have been dropped from the under-20 camp in Abuja, after officials discovered they have various birthdays and with Bosso having declared zero tolerance to age cheating in his bid to qualify for the U20 AFCON, after Nigeria failed to reach the 2017 edition in Zambia.
An official, who also disclosed that all invited players have had to pay for their COVID-19 tests in the team’s camp, as Bosso and his crew enter a race against time to be ready for battle, told SCORENigeria: “The affected players were sent packing immediately the problem was confirmed.”
