₦airaland Forum

referandum:
even though we use memes nah WE WE SOMETHING doesnt give any outsider the fvcking right to insult a NIGERIAN
Alibaba in ma opinion should be apluded for that move he didnt give the impression of a divided household but a united front in saving and condeming sillines against a fellow countryman
WHAT I THINK WE SHOULD ALL DO IS TAKE TO TAKE TO OUR TWITTER HANDLES AND CURSE THE HELL OUTTA AMBER ROSE SO WHENEVER SHE CMES ACROSS ANTHER NIGERIAN UGLY OR NOT SHE WILL FVCKING KEEP HER JOKES TO HER SILY SELF

Dude, we've created memes using foreigners like Mourinho, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin etc. Remember the Mugabe memes? We got on that too. Did their celebrities or citizens start cursing us out cos of that? People copy and tweet memes on the Internet all day without even knowing what country the peeps in the picture come from. No need to take it personal.

MuamarGaddaffi:
I knew it and I said it, that those people previously arrested for Ikorodu bank robbery were innocent but lagos state commissioner of police wants to use them to appease Buhari; sycophant.

Now the real culprits have confess to the crime I think the commissioner of lagos state police and those that were involved in the shady deal should resign and be probed for conspiracy .

Injustice to one is injustice to all. It may not concern you today ,tomorrow may be your turn.
Nigeria police is evil,May God save the poor in this counrty.

You are quite right. I remember that those guys actually pleaded not guilt.

Pidggin:
I have been downloading YouTube videos for a long time now.

Me sef o. Thanks to my Torch browser.

Hhm! No Nigerian child should have to go through this. Sadly that is what our former military rulers and elected politicians since our return to democracy have reduced this country to. God bless the Nigerian child.

M4gunners:
only for 1hour.We will take back our position soon.

You were saying again?

Chelsea are BACK!!!!!!
In 15th place I mean.

M4gunners:
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. Goal now we are still on top.Ighalo weldon bro.

You were saying?

safarigirl:
shey when United was dancing along mid to bottom table, thy still made FP?

Chelsea has a lot of Naija fans, I assumed that was why their games made FP over Man City, so now, why should City games not make FP?

The Chelsea game hasn't started dear. I think you are following an old game.

Yes, where dem dey? I don show.

safarigirl:
Mukina2.....Chelsea is playing Norwich, why dem no dey FP? City and Liverpool play by 6, abeg try put them on FP too.


Anyway Chelsea 2-0 Norwich

Sorry Safari dear, we don't need bottom of the table games on front page.

kahal29:
.
“In Nigeria, if you lose $59.8 million in a year, federal and state governments will not pay salaries,” he said, adding that there is no way Nigerian budget can accommodate such a loss without the country coming to a standstill.

“Of course we brought international audit teams, forensic auditors and they didn’t see that,” he said.
The former President said he does not want to join issues with the new government, “I wanted to keep away from the public for at least twelve months.”

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/193493-jonathan-washes-hand-off-arms-procurement-scandal.html

Er, does this explain why federal and state governments were owing salaries even under the last administration? Just asking o! Happy Birthday sir.

Oluwaseytiano:
I smell football managrr

Lol.

So much ignorance on one thread. Only a few have understanding.

Act 1 Scene 3: Enter Ayedee.

This film go sweet die.

Hahahahaha..., wait, WHAT? This isn't the jokes section?

Politics? Really?

1k001:
Like i said your logic is fair but i'm not Brazilian or Mexican and so have no stake there.

I'm a Nigerian and i worry about the Nigerian cheating culture and so should we all regardless of whatever else any other country is doing.

Like i said earlier i'd be happier going out in the first round with true 15 year olds than otherwise. At the very least our children learn something. What our children understand these days is that cheating is the way to go.

Integrity is not relative

I agree with you. However, if science through the MRI scan says the boys are within the age limit, who am I to claim that they are over-aged without proof. I would feel offended if someone accused me of being fraudulent without proof. I won't do the same to someone else.

tosin2013:
In addition dabossman,

1. Attitude
The average african footballer has little ambition, even less desire to be a great football legend or match up with the all time greats! Most are okay benchwarming (eg mikel) clubs and collecting cheques every week. Worse is the feeling of being a "bigboy", unruly and undisciplined makes it difficult for coaches, and officials to control players. Unnecessary arguments promoted by the media cause great divisions within teams dat want to compete at world class level. attitude never fails ! ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING!

2. Administration
Here lies the greater problem. Complete and total disorganization of affairs regarding our teams and league. Camping, flight plans, payments, ethnic jingoism, even instability of the football management are greater reasons why nigeria cannot win and may not even qualify for future world cups if we continue like this!

3. League
Until we realize that our national teams success is DIRECTLY linked to our leagues ( yes pro, div1, div2, youth league, etc) we will keep failing! Players should be able to signed from enyimba or rangers to madrid or bayern. And even if they dont we should be able to present club teams dat play against european teams.

4. Support structure
Aw many local league teams av qualified team doctors, physiotherapists, and other health pros attached to them on a weekly basis? What about the national teams? Other issues like counselling, technical depts, coaching development, youth setup of all clubs, long term planning etc.

You are absolutely correct. I wonder how we want to excel at the highest level of football when we can't get ourselves properly organized.

palladin:
Let me spread my Mat here.

Care for some popcorn? This action film go sweet die.

Bollinger:
you know what? I know a way to shut you up. Why is that Nigeria is the undisputed giant of the under 17 championship but are nowhere to be found in competitions where there is a level playing field?

The most important reason why Nigeria, and even African teams don't do well at senior level is because, African players strengths lie largely in Physical attributes i.e natural fitness, pace, stamina, agility, strength etc. At u17 level it is easy to defeat your opponents with these attributes. However, at senior level, Technical and mental abilities are more likely to get you results than physical qualities.

What are these technical attributes? Crossing, Finishing, First touch, Freekick and penalty taking, passing, marking, tackling, technique.

What about mental attributes? Anticipation, Composure, Concentration, Decision making, Off the ball movement, positioning, Teamwork

Are these not the problems killing our teams? We create chances we can't finish. Striker and defenders lack composure under pressure. Defenders can't mark and tackle poorly thus collecting unnecessary cards. Players can't control the ball because first touch is bad. We hardly score from set pieces and defend them poorly. Wingers can't make effective crosses. We lose concentration the longer games go on. These are the problems. Go and check our World Cup games. You will see that these are the reasons why we lose.

How many of our academies teach these? How many of our coaches even now this? Do you learn this while playing set or playing under the bridge or at Agege stadium? Okocha once said that what the average 20 year old player in Europe knows about technical and mental qualities, most African players don't know even at 27. Go and check any football statistics website or even Football Manager and check for these qualities with African players. It is always high on the physical, but low on the technical and mental. Only a handful ever meet up.

Bollinger:
you know what? I know a way to shut you up. Why is that Nigeria is the undisputed giant of the under 17 championship but are nowhere to be found in competitions where there is a level playing field?

Oh by all means I will oblige you by giving a number of reasons, even though Safarigirl, Semidlyfe and several others have stated it repeatedly hear. The below is a thread I created two years ago just during the 2013 U17 tourney. The question is will you and others be objective enough to accept this reasons, or is it convenient to put everything down to age falsification.

Sadly, what many of you who keep shouting this age thing do not realize is that until we tackle the more important issue of proper youth development, strength our local league and also improve our coaching, we may never reach the heights we desire at the senior World Cup. Mind you only eight teams out of the hundreds of countries around the globe have ever won the World Cup. And the country that has won it the most, Brazil, are confirmed age cheats. So why has it worked for them?

The flip side of your argument that we don't do well at senior level because of age falsification is also to ask why England doesn't do well at senior level? Is it because they are age cheats? What about the US? They have a large population. Their women dominate female soccer, so why can't their men do same? Or are they age cheats too? What about Russia? Even Argentina that are the undisputed kings of U20 in the last 20 years have not won the World Cup and only made it past the quarter-finals for the first time last year, since 1990.

Please read what I have pasted below especially point 3 and 4.

dabossman:
With the Golden Eaglets recent qualification for the finals of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the UAE, the perennial question of what becomes of these talented youngsters has started to ring out again. The age long (no pun intended) argument about age falsification within the nation’s youth teams is an ever constant colossus that usually overshadows whatever laurels the U-17’s or U-20’s win.
Nigeria has won the U-17 tourney three times and has played in the U-20 finals twice, throwing up a pool of amazing youngsters that showed so much promised and left Nigerians dreaming of a strong Super Eagles that would one day win the World Cup. However, that dream is still but a dream.

One factor that most Nigerians believe is responsible for this failure to transfer youth team success to the senior level is the tendency for youth players to falsify their ages. Many Nigerians tend to ask, “What happened to the stars of the all-conquering U-17 teams we had before?” Where are the likes of Peter Anosike, Ibrahim Babangida and Sambo Choji of the class of ’93; Femi Opabunmi, Soga Sambo and Temile Omonigho of 2001, King Osanga, Macauley Chrisantus, Yakubu Alfa of 2007? And these questions are not out of place.
However, the truth is that this phenomenon is not only peculiar to Nigeria. Usually, only a handful of youth players ever go on to have glorious careers at senior level; in most cases, between three to five players per squad.

It is very easy to say Gianluigi Buffon and Francesco Totti played for Italy in 1993, Andres Iniesta and Fernando Torres played for Spain in 2001, or Toni Kroos played for Germany in 2007 as did Eden Hazard and Christian Benteke for Belgium and Borjan and David De Gea for Spain. But how many of their team mates can we remember? How many of the squad of 18/21 players then, play for their senior teams today?
Where are the promising stars of yore like Florent Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec (France U-17 2001) who were quickly snapped up by Liverpool? Pongolle was the only one lucky to get a single cap for the senior team. What of Fran Merida and Daniel Aquino (Spain U-17 2007) who have never been capped by Spain. Merida who was once an Arsenal youngster now plays for a lowly team in Brazil. Where is Richard Sukuta-Pasu (Germany U-17 2007) who scored four goals on their way to third-place?

The same is the trend at U-20 level. You only need to do a comprehensive research to discover that most youth players from the U-17 and U-20’s, even those from winning squads, usually just fade of into their local leagues and never get more than one to five senior caps if they are lucky. Many never do.

Below are a few reasons why youth players and Nigerian youth players in particular, never make it to the senior team.

1. A Large Biennial Pool of Players
The U-17 and U-20 World Cups take place every two years. This means that large pools of about 42 youth players are showcased on the world stage constantly every two years. That is 84 in four years, and 126 in six years. So imagine Nigeria, or any nation at that playing at U-17 and U-20 consecutively for six years and producing 126 potential senior team players. How many will end up making the cut?

2. Quality Senior players often play for over a decade
The chances of youth team players breaking into the senior team is also limited because their senior colleagues usually play for many years thus shutting them out of the senior squad. How many youth players between 2001 and 2008 stood a chance of displacing Joseph Yobo, Austin Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Vincent Enyeama, John Utaka, Obafemi Martins and the likes from the senior team? You would have to be exceptionally talented and extraordinarily lucky to do so. In the same vein, players like Asier Illaramendi, Nacho and Borjan (Spain U17 2007) will probably never get more than the one or two senior caps as long as Xavi Alonso, Gerard Pique and the like of Xavi and Iniesta continue to play for La Roja, just like Haruna Lukman and Rabiu Ibrahim.

3. The Quality of the Local League
A lot of youth players go on to enjoy their footballing careers playing in their national leagues. So many English players that we know from watching so much of the EPL played at youth level. We watch many former youth players in the La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and other top European Leagues even when they never play for the seniors. Can we say the same for Nigeria?

Most of our youth team players end up in the back leagues of Europe simply because they will settle for any deal that will pay foreign currency. At least with that they can support their families back home.

Yes some of our former youth players like Akpan Bassy have had long careers in the local league. Some have returned home after misadventures in Europe. But how many of them do we know of? How can we even know of them when we hardly follow the league, nor do we get to watch it on television?

4. Bad Career Choices
This is no doubt the bane of many fledgling careers. Our youngsters in a bid to play in Europe will settle for anything, anywhere. From Malta to Cyprus, Bulgaria, Qatar, Vietnam and Moldova; if there is cash to be earned, our players will go. Many do not seek to try and develop their game, but instead join clubs that will only turn them into a mediocre. There is no way you can play in such lower European leagues with players who with all due respect are not of a superior class and it will not affect your game. Even players like Pongolle and Le Tallec as stated above, who played with big names at Liverpool faded away. How much more someone playing in Malta or Liechtenstein?

In reality, it would be very myopic to just relegate the reason why our former youth internationals never graduate to play for the senior national team to just a matter of age falsification. There are many other factors to be considered. Only if these factors can be addressed systematically can we hope to see youngsters like Iheanaco, Yahaya, Awoniyi, Success and the many more that will come after them graduate seamlessly to the Super Eagles.

Bollinger:
Obviously they can't which is why they don't do as well in age grade competitions. They play according to their actual skill level. Nigeria on the other hand play over and beyond what a normal 17 old would because of their cheating nature. I wonder why with a boistrous youth programme we never seem to be able to do the same in normal aged competitions. Use your head bro. All you need do this weekend is go out and watch a game and tell me that a 16 year old can play like that in Nigeria. There is no way in hell you'd find 11 players like that. One or two maybe but not 11.

Wow, Brazil, Argentina and Spain don't do well in age grade competitions? Case closed. And then you say Nigeria has a boisterous youth programme? Where? Under the bridges, or at the corner fields where boys play set? Seriously? I went to a secondary school where we did sports and played competitions. My mates who were in the school team did not have the same stature as I did. They were bigger, with better developed muscles because they were athletes and they could play soccer at great pace and take long shots that covered distances; and they were more than 11, not to talk of the whole Nigeria.

asha80:
of course not..these academies are well structured and have have history...but that does not mean we should lie about these things..of you use your real age it is not really a guarantee that you will turn up successful in football industry but for those that do you would last Long in the highest level of the game because you cant cheat nature..the good Portuguese national team of btw 1997 to 2004 do you know the backbone of that team was the under 20 youth teams of Portugal of 1989 and 1991?

Do you know that davor suker,Robert prosinecki ,Robert jarni and zvonimir boban of the great [b]France 98 [/b]Croatian team were under 20s of the then Yugoslavian team that won that tournament?

I'm glad you mentioned France 98 because in that same tournament we had at least 4 boys from our Japan 93 U17 squad as well. Kanu, Oruma, Celestine Babayaro, Mobi Oparaku. We also had at least 5 former U20 players in Tijani Babangida, Amuneke, Okocha, Mutiu Adepoju and Victor Ikpeba. Where they not the spine of our own team? Did we not top a group that had Spain and previous world cup semi-finalists Bulgaria? Or did we defeat them at that level because we were over-aged?

That Croatia had a good run at France 98 is not necessarily about the ages of their players. Was Ghana not on the verge of a World Cup semi-final until Suarez played the fool? Was it because Ghanaian players were not over-aged? There are so many factors to consider beyond real age.

Dragonking:
You be confirmed mumu....If i take you to court and provide the FIFA report showing the MRI scan of those boys to be U17, what evidence do you have to defend yourself apart from hearsay and eye judgement....Ode oshi

Please ignore Bigwallace. The guy is one of the age cheats who was screened out, probably by MRI, and his now all over NL with his sour grapes.

Bollinger:
You'all can fool yourselves with patriotism all you like. The fact is we have been fielding over aged players in youth football. If you ever played the game, you'll know that there is no way you can have 11 players at that age playing at the level they are. One or two maybe, but not eleven. Look at your 16 year old brother and compare with these guys and it'll tell you everything you need to know. Worse is some of them will even claim 14. 14 for God's sake. Haba. No wonder when philip Osondu went pro, his club was expecting him to start growing taller as is expected of a 16 year old but my bro's was growing sideways. This was the best player in 1987 but what they did not know was that he was playing at his prime. They spent millions on him and got nothing in return. Nigerians, change your mentality.

@bolded: Really? But 16-17 year-old Germans, Brazilians, Spaniards, Argentines can play at that level? It is only the Africans that cannot play at that level. I guess your secondary school never had a school team. Kids at that age can play football for 3 hours non-stop. And please enough with the beer parlour gist about Osundu. We've all heard those tales about him. They spent millions on him indeed. I guess you signed the cheques.

1k001:
You make a fair argument however i personally don't subscribe to innocent until proven guilty in Nigeria because our loopholes are too glaring. I can walk into a lot of places now and buy a birth cert saying i'm 2 years old. If being corrupt is so easy and so cheap as it is here then perhaps the burden of proof lies somewhat on the individual rather than an assumption of innocence. Many countries have not illogically gone down this route when dealing with us in certain area. And yes we are all guilty, myself included, hence the mistrust.

The bolded is why you have some people here pointing out that other countries do it too, even though it is no justification for cheating. The same loopholes we have here as far as birth registration and securing false documentation to falsify ones age exists in South America, Asia and even some parts of Europe. But many critics of our age grade teams simply assume that because the other teams are 'white-skinned' they are above board.

We played Brazil and Mexico on our way to winning this last U17 and some Nigerians said we beat those teams because our players were older. Come on! Brazil? Mexico? Countries that have been caught in age cheating like us? Are those countries so well developed that these loopholes you mention are not present? There are even some countries in Eastern Europe that are not as developed as we assume in record keeping, neither are they honest in all their sports dealings. The recent mess in FIFA and the IAAF with Russian athletes is a pointer that many others cheat in different ways. Do we place the burden of proof on their individuals? Aren't we always quick to assume that they are innocent, while we are the perpetual cheats?

Alphaoscar:
Action film don start .

It was obvious to the discerning that all issue about finding guns and money in his house was just the trailer. It was nothing but a diversion to hold Dasuki down while preparing the real case against him. Na now film one start. Make I grab my popcorn. This should be interesting.

Lilprincey:
L

For Learner. Are you a learner?

Was smiling on this thread until I got to Mogidi's post. Don't these guys ever give it a rest? Keep your sh*t in the politics section. Lawd.

TheSuperNerd:
**peeps out of "Study"**

CONCLUSION:

In the long run, beyond Russia 2018 and towards Qatar 2022, THE CORE FUTURE OF THE SUPER EAGLES LIE WITH THE SUPER TALENTS THAT MADE UP THE NIGERIAN U-17 SUPER CLASS OF 2013 @ UAE 2013 (in addition to those that joined in the 2015 U-20s) AND THE NIGERIAN U-17 UNIQUE CLASS OF 2015 THAT TRIUMPHED IN CHILE.


2013 and 2015 U-17s Merger:

The likes of Kelechi Iheanacho, Simon Moses (who scored today), Musa Yahaya, Isaac Success, Dele Alampasu, Wilfred Ndidi, Musa Mohammed, Taiwo Awoniyi, Chidera Ezeh, Godwin Savior, Kingsley Sokari, Chidiebere Nwakali, Aliyu Abubakar, Muazam(Alhassan Ibrahim Abdullahi), Bernard Bulbwa, Ifeanyi Matthew, Akinjide Idowu, Kelechi Nwakali, Victor Osimhen, Akpan David Udoh, John Lazarus, Udochukwu Anumudu, David Enogela, Samuel Chukwueze, Funsho Bamgboye, Halilu Zakari, Kingsley Michael, Chinedu Madueke, Okwonkwo Orji, among other top talents still to come are the "SUPER TALENTS" THAT FORMS THE CORE FOUNDATION OF OUR SUPER EAGLES IN THE LONG RUN...... BEYOND RUSSIA 2018.

Most of the players of the UAE 2013 U-17 set are in good clubs in Europe. A few are locally based and doing well also.

Hopefully the Chile 2015 U-17 set follows suite and go on to become great players and further expand our pool of "excellent talents" to draw from for Nigeria's Super Eagles.


**goes back into "Study" room**

Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. Some of these players will not develop as expected. Some will start enjoying the good life in Europe and focus less on their football development. Some will have to contend with better players or even senior players playing in their position and will never see senior team football. it's just the way age-grade players go. it's not peculiar to Nigeria either.

nerodenero:
We have been building. Our building and rebuilding na for eternity!!!!!

You never stop building a football team. Otherwise, clubs wouldn't buy new players every season. Even those who win the title still try to strength their team in certain areas.

internetpo:
This issue of private hospitals rejecting gunshot patients. I think we should send a bill to the national assembly so that it becomes a criminal offence for hospitals to reject gunshot wounds patients.
pata pata, you can treat them and call the police while they are still being treated.
RIP to the pour soul.
I believe Justice will prevail and the robbers will meet their waterloo soon.
Ambode do something or is Fashola shoes too big for you to fill?

onatisi:
Ambode is still jogging around Lagos ,stopping drivers and inspecting bridges and roads that have no problems.
Lagos state now has a governor that works from twitter and facebook.

I don't know why the report didn't name the hospitals. The IG of police already gave a directive for hospitals to treat people with gunshot wounds without a police report. But some of our people are just stuck in their ways. No regard for life. Yet, they will come and ask why people are praying for France. Mtschewww.

I also think it's unfair to blame Ambode while being silent on the CP in Lagos and the IG of Police. The truth is as long as the IG in Abuja continues to control the CP's in the states, Governors are just Chief Security Officers in name. Afterall, the victims called the Police and they refused to show up. Is it Ambode that will drive them to the scene of the crime?

1k001:
A lot of arguments here seem to revolve around justifying cheating because others are doing it. Let it be known that integrity is not relative. I'll be more proud of a failing truthful country than a lying successful one. It's based on that reason i didn't follow the u-17 team. I couldn't bring myself to believe the purported ages.

It's not about justifying it because others do it. It's about the way we throw unfounded aspersions at every U-17 or U-20 player without any proof that they are age cheats. If we really want to stop the trend of age falsification, then we should NAME and SHAME. Adokiye Amasiemeka did so, and Fortune Chukwudi's career ended pronto. It's unfair to just look at a squad of 18 players and just conclude that they are all over-aged without any shred of proof. Do we label all American athletes as drug cheats simply because Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin and some of their other athletes failed drug tests? Should we conclude that every gold medal won by an American, Russian or Chinese athlete was won because they are drug cheats?

Let's all stop playing holier than thou. If we use over-aged players then we are all guilt. From the parents of those players, to their teachers, classmates, those in their neighbourhoods, their Pastors, Priests, Imams, Academy coaches, national team coaches, everyone whose "brothers-cousins-friend" was in the same school with the age cheat and even the press who can expose cheats by just digging a little into their history. Enough of all these baseless aspersions. If you have proof, NAME and SHAME. Until then, we will just have to accept FIFA and their MRI scan.

And enough of all this Nigeria has won the World Cup, but haven't won the senior world cup blah blah blah. Argentina have won U20 five times between 1995-2007 and haven't won the World Cup since 1986. And that is a country with a much bigger pedigree than ours.

Na wa o. Naija scored two goals from set pieces. Well, what do you know.

jonathanOz:
Agreed, we cheat, but don't make it sound like only Nigerians are culprit. Most south and North American countries too cheat. Even the mexican team we played sometime ago had some clearly over aged players among them.
And what's the use of the MRI scan? Why did FIFA incorporate it into the screening process? If fifa is okay with the results of the scan i don't see why anybody should be worried. Some peeps should stop proving more catholic than the pope abeg. Even FIFA is very corrupt

So we are age cheats, while Europeans and Americans are drug cheats. What is new?