[b]It started as a mere rumour, but confirmation came yesterday that four players in the World Cup-bound Nigeria U-17 female team, the Flamingoes, will not make the trip to Florida, United States on Tuesday, following the alleged denial of visa to them by the American Embassy over age discrepancy.

Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa will fly Africa’s flag in this year’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup which will hold in Trinidad and Tobago from September 5 to 28. The Nigerian team was originally scheduled to jet out to Florida today for a pre-World Cup training tour, but the trip has been moved to Tuesday next week following delay in securing visas for the girls.

In preparation for the tour, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was said to have submitted the names of 25 players and an undisclosed number of officials to the American Embassy in Abuja. The football house had wanted to take all 25 players to Florida for the training tour where it would pick its final 21 list.

It was learnt that midway into the process of issuing visas to the players and their officials, the embassy allegedly noticed age discrepancy in the document submitted by some of the players.

“About 10 players had already been issued visa when an official of the embassy discovered that some of the players had earlier used different ages to seek visas at different times. The embassy immediately stopped the process and that was what caused the delay in their trip to Florida,” a source told The Guardian.

However, the embassy was said to have eventually issued visa to 21 players and officials of the team yesterday, excluding the four players.

Officials of the team are keeping the situation secret, even as Head Coach, Peter Dedevbo, and his assistant, Adanna Nwaneri, said yesterday that there was nothing of such in the team.

But when The Guardian sought the view of the Technical Director of the NFF, James Peter, yesterday, he painted a different story yesterday, saying: “It is true the embassy turned down our visa request for four players, but nobody has explained to us the reasons behind it. We submitted the names of 25 players for the training tour in Florida because we felt that in case of an injury, the coaches should have alternative players to fall back to in making their final selection. We will travel with the 21 players that got visa. That is the required number for the FIFA competition, but the embassy should have seen reasons with us,” Peter stated.

Efforts to speak with the embassy officials were unsuccessful yesterday.

This is not the first time the Flamingoes team is being hit with age controversy. When Nigeria defeated South Africa 7-1 goals aggregate to pick the World Cup ticket earlier in the year, the South Africans petitioned FIFA to challenge the age claims of four players in the Flamingoes’ squad.

Some of the players, including Charity Adule who was part of the Flamingoes qualification, was later dropped after playing in the Nigeria U-20 (Falconets) team at the last FIFA U-20 World Cup in Germany.

The Flamingoes will begin their Group A campaign on September 5 against Korea DPR.[/b]

When are we going to stop with this our age cheating?

Wait until someone comes telling you these girls are no age cheats.

honeric01:

Wait until someone comes telling you these girls are no age cheats.

Definitely someone will come to tell us different cock and bull story, hhhmmm 9ja

Fcking cheating nation, as usual.

MR Money £:

Definitely someone will come to tell us different cock and bull story, hhhmmm 9ja

Hhehehehe, Some Nigerians and lies, they are like twin born from the parents

Sagamite:

Fcking cheating nation, as usual.

Don't worry, we are going to make sure Nigerians on NL feel the shame and stop supporting age cheats

this is no news.

NEXT. . .

tayo_ast:

this is no news.

NEXT. . .

Nigeria will not stop to disgrace herself

^^ didnt u watch d just concluded FIFA Women Under 20 World Cup?

i kip mocking my sistas evri tym they play, saying 'awon aunty yin ma ti n play'

Hehehehe

U-17 ko, U-9 ni

hehehe. . . but y r we like dt in ds country?

tayo_ast:

hehehe. . . but y r we like dt in ds country?

Did Nigeria gain Independence through a corrupt means it seems Nigeria gave birth to corruption

hahaha. . .now dat's laffable

Silly cheats. . . . dem nor even sabi lie convincingly sef.

Still laughing my head off at Desire Oparanozie who claims to be 16. I know she'd be in her mid-late 20's but why she nor even claim the maximum age (18+) allowed for the U-19 competition instead of the obviously false and ridiculous 16 sef?

semid4lyfe:

Silly cheats. . . . dem nor even sabi lie convincingly sef.

Still laughing my head off at Desire Oparanozie who claims to be 16. I know she'd be in her mid-late 20's but why she nor even claim the maximum age (18+) allowed for the U-19 competition instead of the obviously false and ridiculous 16 sef?

lol

semid4lyfe:

Silly cheats. . . . dem nor even sabi lie convincingly sef.

Still laughing my head off at Desire Oparanozie who claims to be 16. I know she'd be in her mid-late 20's but why she nor even claim the maximum age (18+) allowed for the U-19 competition instead of the obviously false and ridiculous 16 sef?

God Dey.

MR Money £:

Corruption ranges from all aspects of our life, from our leaders, to the police, to the entire  society itself, even in the family parents bribing their children for one reason or the other its fast spreading more than a Virus disease in our society.

I couldn't have said it better.

Its a terrible thing

MR Money £:

Corruption ranges from all aspects of our life, from our leaders, to the police, to the entire  society itself, even in the family parents bribing their children for one reason or the other its fast spreading more than a Virus disease in our society.

The thing that amazes me is the way some people on NL will do anything to defend/cover up this cheating, thinking it is patroitism and claiming the "girls" are heroes. Then the same people will turn-around and be complaining when politicians legally award themselves money, when police just want to cheat a little bit by collecting N20 to suppliment their income, NFF give Lagerback $200K a month with him passing $100K back to them through the back door. What fcking mouth do you have to complain when you think national cheating should be covered up?

So it is OK for our nation to have zero principles and ruthlessly (not even slightly) cheat other nations, and when this national "achievement" is imitated by the average citizen it is wrong?

Still laughing my head off at Desire Oparanozie who claims to be 16. I know she'd be in her mid-late 20's but why she nor even claim the maximum age (18+) allowed for the U-19 competition instead of the obviously false and ridiculous 16 sef?