₦airaland Forum

ifyalways: The Jani guy seems to be sympathetic to Odiaero.why can't he just borrow or dash Odi some money so Yo can be settled and he can continue his cosy relationship with Odi

hisableplc: The Egbons in the building mdsocks honeric lucas jamace etc how una dey... dis one wey una show face there is fire on the mountain ohhhh brokers go hear am today lol

skales: She lookz like a sudanese ....

Na dis left'over tee bills wan chop for the rest of his life be dis?

naijababe: .

More like Oliver twist

surveycash:
1000pips . [i]O ti oo..[/i]Maybe he meant 100..Abi trend don change ni? The monthly charts are clearly bullish.

silibaba: goin short on ej for 1000 pips. don't ask me why or how. #trend following tinz#

infofirst: where u n endfx hide for nah n ow trade

naijababe: Is it not playing out nicely . See wetin GN do? E pain me small sha o, I for don collect 200 pips now

Josh090: Irregardless, you have to agree, he made plenty sense in that post.
Those teams did not come to sell ground nut.

surveyProf: Hello

actually,to be frank with you I myself despite the scan software I normally used, I can not seems to get the actual location of the defendant, as we speak, same with Mr. Anthonio, frm the chat details sent to me, he claimed to be in China, trading for some Chinese family, some other places, he did said he will be moving to the United States, if he does, I should be able to track him!

Sisebuto: he said me if I dont close the site, we will see on a court. He say in USA. ? I said him I will close the site when he returns the money. Nicodemus, come here and explain¡¡¡¡¡ Why not dear Nicodemus (Odiaero)?

ROSSIKE: NO. It is YOU who needs to understand that you do not take nations like Ethioipia and Burkina Faso for granted by assuming Nigeria should just roll over them as if they weren't there. It is YOU who needs to change your simplistic, LAZILY ARROGANT attitude to African football, and get it into your head that a there are no longer minnow nations in African football. And that Nigeria can play a tight game with Ethiopia without being a 'poor team'. Every nation at the AFCON is there on merit, after battling hard to qualify. Don't sniff your nose at them. I'm sure you insulted the Super Eagles after their 1-1 draw with Cape Verde in a friendly prior to AFCON. In your mind, they should have given Cape Verde 10-0. But now we see that Cape Verde are no mugs, and are a genuine squad that can mix it with Africa's best. So learn to appreciate even slim victories by the SE against ANY African team.

naijababe: The exit plan for EJ

surveyProf: ................

AjanleKoko:

2sexy: That is the problem with all this white folks... she has already caved in sentimentally.

As you truely said, people on here have alerted him...


I am off jor... so annoying!

donchris33: We never heard of any donations of any of turai's project. Please give me a source. During obasanjoo,s tenure not only did stella had her projects, all atiku's wife had projects even to the last wife jennifer had projects, so why all these hostilities on patience? This is my bone of contention.
Now if we are debating on the issue of 5billion I don't and won't support that. It is too outrageous for any first lady to use for any project. I am not just happy with the vilifications that Gej is getting due to hatred and jealousy. If gej does not perform to my expectations he won't get my vote in 2015. But if you guys think intimidation will change my mind by calling me mentally challenged, political jobber and all what not, if you all think that propaganda will change me..... Hmmmm.... You all are in for a shocker. Thank you!

Born in the Congolese capital of Kinshasha, Mbemba had more reasons than most to try and play in Europe.
Almost everyone up and down the commodity chain is involved -- from coaches and recruiters to family and the players themselves


Recent attempts to contact Mbemba to shed light on his unusual story have gone unanswered.
While Mbemba's dream has become something of a bureaucratic nightmare, his story also highlights the continuing issue of age fabrication in football.

In 2009, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) was embarrassed in the run-up to the Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria when FIFA introduced MRI scans to ensure teams were not fielding overage players.
Wary of the tests, Africa's competitors ran their own tests to discover a handful of The Gambia's African championship-winning side were overage, while Nigeria was forced to drop over a dozen players from its proposed squad.

We needed him'
Age fabrication allows nations to field stronger teams in youth tournaments. The age of player is also important for the buying and selling club as it has implications for their salary and future sell-on value.
"Most of the age cheating is intentional and aimed at securing victories in international youth competitions, or overseas contracts, especially in Europe," African historian Peter Alegi, author of "African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World's Game," told CNN.
"Almost everyone up and down the commodity chain is involved -- from coaches and recruiters to family and the players themselves."


A technically gifted defender, Mbemba played for three clubs in the Congo beginning in 2006,with his birth date registered at E.S. La Grace and Mputu as August 8, 1988 -- according to copies of official Congolese player photocards given to CNN -- before he joined MK Étanchéité.
The documents showing Mbemba's various ages were provided by the Brazilian agent Paulo Teixeira, who says he was called in by E.S. La Grace to obtain money they claimed was owed to them by Anderlecht for training the player in his formative years.

In attempting to verify these documents -- from FIFA, the various federations and clubs involved -- only the world governing body and the Belgian FA responded directly to CNN's request to confirm their authenticity, while a professional Belgian referee confirmed that the Anderlecht team sheet was the type of paperwork used in Belgian football.

"It goes by itself that it is impossible for the Belgian FA to control manually whether every player taking part in a game organized by our federation is also a member of our federation," said the Belgian FA in a statement.
"Weekly, the Belgian FA organizes more than 10,000 games all over the country (300,000 every year) and so far, most of the official match sheets are not digitalized.
Mbemba's talent ensured he quickly came to the attention of the Congo national coaches, though, with his birth date listed as 1988, Mbemba would have been ineligible for the 2012 Olympic Games if the DRC squad were to make it through the qualifying rounds.

That, according to an official of Congo's football federation, prompted authorities to turn the clock forward.
"We needed him, so we registered him as being born in 1991," explained the staff member of the Fédération Congolaise de Football-Association -- FECOFA -- who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.
However the testimony of another Congolese player, Mike Cestor, who plays for fifth-tier English club Woking, suggests that the Mbemba case is not a one-off.

"I was selected for an Olympic Games qualifying match with Congo's under-23 team against Morocco," said Cestor.
At this moment the Belgian FA is working on the complete digitalization of its official match sheets which will be completed by July 1, 2013. From then on, situations like this should no longer be possible
Belgian Football Association
"But it was a complete mess -- the organization, training and the trip itself. We were three new players who played in Europe.

"The FECOFA told us: 'We'll make a passeport provisoire,' " added Cestor, referring to the official document which is issued by a country's football association on behalf of the players and is submitted to match officials for a game.

"Every player had a passeport provisoire -- it was shocking, though, mine never arrived," said the Woking player, whose dream is still to play for the Congo national team despite the organization of the FECOFA..

Before the game, one lady from Morocco was checking the passports. She was angry and she screamed in French: 'It's a disgrace! I never saw that in all my life!'
"She knew it was false but she couldn't do anything. Of course the dates of birth were untrue.
"The FECOFA and the staff write what they want, especially for the local players. It was comical. The FECOFA is the major source of the problems in Congolese football. Its organization is awful."
Asked why Mbemba had been allowed to play for the Congo with various different ages, FECOFA president Constant Omari declined to address the question.

"I'm a president of a federation. I don't know what presidents in the UK say, but here we do not comment on players' age," Omari told CNN. "I have strictly nothing to add."
He hung up before any other questions could be asked.

Paperwork trail
Meanwhile, Mbemba's prospects of securing that move to Europe gathered pace after he was spotted by Fabio Baglio, who also represents one of the DRC's leading players Dieumerci Mbokani -- also of Anderlechet -- and recently voted Belgium's player of the year.

It was thanks to Baglio's contacts that Mbemba was granted a trial by Anderlecht in June 2011.
Granted a residence permit the following month, Mbemba played in official games for Anderlecht, but one key piece of information had changed.
Mbemba was now six years younger with a new date of birth -- August 8, 1994. How -- and by whom -- that date was arrived at isn't entirely clear.[/b]

[b]Mbemba himself has continued to say in interviews that he was actually born in 1990. Regardless, with the new club and his new birth date, the paperwork trail began to catch up with him.
One of Mbemba's former club presidents, Bernard Yuka of E.S. La Grace, decided it was time to claim a training compensation fee from Anderlecht -- given that the Congo team had helped train him and was, therefore, entitled to development costs associated with nurturing him as a player.

Yuka mandated the Brazilian agent Paulo Teixeira, who has experience of working with small African and South American clubs to obtain player development payments, to help E.S. La Grace obtain the money from FIFA, which adjudicates such cases.
During a conversation between Teixeira and Yuka -- the Brazilian has provided CNN with a transcript of that exchange -- the E.S. La Grace president allegedly told the agent that FECOFA president Omari wanted the training compensation case dropped.
Last year Teixeira submitted the transcript to FIFA as part of a dispute case he was involved in with AC Milan and Anderlecht. And on Thursday, the world governing body confirmed it was now investigating the issues surrounding the Mbemba case.
Teixeira told Yuka he was happy to drop the mandate, but that the paperwork from Mbemba's spells at E.S La Grace and Mputu was not going to go away.
"I knew the club had rights on the matter, so I pursued them," said Yuka earlier this week, who also verified to CNN the conversation he had with Omari in April. Omari refused to discuss the issue when he was contacted by CNN.

Birthday present
At the start of 2012, Mbemba's case developed a Kafkaesque twist.
Despite the fact that he had made his debut for Anderlecht's Under-19 team in September 2011, playing against Club Brugge, it emerged that the Belgian Football Association had never registered the defender.
As a result, Mbemba was technically ineligible -- according to source with directo knowledge of the situation -- to play either in that match or in two others when he turned out for the Belgian powerhouse[b][/b].

"At this moment the Belgian FA is working on the complete digitalization of its official match sheets which will be completed by July 1, 2013," said the Belgian FA. "From then on, situations like this should no longer be possible."
To further complicate matters, FIFA became involved in March 2012 -- because if Mbemba in fact had been born in August 1994, he was technically a minor under the governing body's Transfer Matching System rules.

"Please understand that the date of birth of any player noted in the Transfer Matching System (TMS) is confidential to parties involved in the transfer of that particular player," FIFA said in a statement to CNN. "Therefore, we are unable to provide it to you.
Generally speaking, we have to highlight that a falsified passport is a legal offense which has to be followed by legal authorities.

FIFA
"Generally speaking, we have to highlight that a falsified passport is a legal offense which has to be followed by legal authorities. TMS is a tool which provides all parties that are involved in a transfer with all the details they need to know about the player, and helps to bring transparency into a transfer."
Opacity
With confusion growing around Mbemba's status, Anderlecht sent him back to Kinshasa.
"Taking into account the opacity of the case and the legal consequences that may arise, Anderlecht has decided not to offer an employment contract to Mbemba," said the club's general manager Herman van Holsbeeck in a letter to FIFA, which was part of the documentation given to CNN.
When asked to provide clarity about the irregularities in Mbemba's case, Anderlecht requested time to prepare a response, before communication and media manager David Steegen announced that the club would have no comment on the subject. The agent Baglio and Entacheite president Max' Moxey also also declined to return CNN's calls to shed light on the Mbemba affair,
Mbemba's return to Africa was tough for him to take.

"I was born in 1990," said the defender. While in an interview with the Sharkfoot website in April 2012, Mbemba said: "I don't understand. Fabio Baglio told me that I had to go to Africa to come back to Anderlecht later. In May, Entacheite president Max' (Mokey) told me I will go back.
"Anderlecht's managing director told me I will sign a professional contract in August. The chairman of La Grace will sign a document to confirm my date of birth as 1994 and I can come back."

In June 2012, Mbemba's prospects brightened when the Congo national team's French coach Claude Leroy picked him to play against the Seychelles in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.
Soon afterwards a Kinshasa court ruled that Mbemba was, in fact, born on August 8, 1994 and he was given the perfect present when he was handed a three-year deal with Anderlecht.

The icing on the cake for the now 18-year-old Mbemba came when he was called up for the DRC's Africa Cup of Nations squad for the 2013 event in South Africa, though he was not used in any of the matches with Leroy's team knocked out of the competition after drawing all three of their games.
How Mbemba's career pans out remains to be seen. Whatever happens, he is likely to be remembered as the player who had four birthdays.
Additional reporting by Saskya Vandoorne and Alex Felton

Abrantie: We are already there. Our next game is just a formality. Hell will freeze over before Togo or BF beats mighty Ghana.

This cup is ours. Aint nobody stopping us.

Abrantie: Because we have always beaten them. They are both are immediate neighbors and they get cold feet whenever they meet Ghana.

Nigeria too shall bow down to us and call us "Igwe" when we meet.

ItsModella: ok sowie

Abrantie: In your dreams. You first have to go through Mali.

I hope we both get to the finals. As I said some time last week or so, "Nobody eliminates Nigeria from the tournament except God or Ghana".

ItsModella: GBAM!! I am..