Age Cheating Holding back African Teams - CIES Report

[Cito]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/age-cheati ... 02414.html

Despite fielding the youngest players in A national teams in 2015, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon continue to remain underachievers due to endemic age cheating, a CIES report has stated.

In its January 2016 report, the Swiss-based Football Observatory cast doubt on the declared ages of African footballers which it claims is responsible for the untapped potential of African teams in senior football.

Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are listed as having fielded the youngest players among 50 sampled A national teams in 2015 – 24.7, 25.1 and 25.3 years respectively.

“However, this result must be analysed carefully insofar as footballers born in Africa tend to be older than they claim to be,” stated the report.

With the immense talent on the continent, only three teams – Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon – have ever reached the quarter finals of the World Cup.

However, both Nigeria and Ghana have regularly won world titles at youth levels, with Nigeria winning a record fifth Under-17 world title last October.

“Lying about one’s age is a common practice that implies a competitive advantage in youth categories,” said the report.

“However, in the long term, this strategy is counterproductive as it does not provide optimum conditions for the full development of talent.

“This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Fielding young players has its advantages as the report highlighted the impact of youth in the England national team that qualified seamlessly for the 2016 European Championship.

However, the Netherlands were let down by youth as they failed to qualify for the same tournament despite fielding players with an average age of 25.6 years, the same with England.

“In the first case, the bias towards youth has not been a success as the Dutch failed to qualify for Euro 2016. For the English, on the other hand, the results have been more positive.

“The youthfulness of the players available to Roy Hodgson is the sign of a renaissance which suggests a promising future,” the report said.

The remaining teams in the top 10 are Korea Republic, Algeria, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

This is a very incomplete and simplistic way of looking at why African are not performing better at world stage.

[deanotito]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

[Field Marshall Ogolo]

Holding back Nigeria, stop lying!

[Rawlings]

Naija does not age cheat PERIOD
They have won all their 5 U-17 titles fair and square

[Gotti]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

Might well be case...

But the so-called 'report' is predicated upon rather obtuse (for starters, there is no demonstrable correlation between youth and ability among SENIOR national teams) and in fact, quite racist assumptions (and I realize that you do not not think that an old white dude that calling young African-American ladies that he has never met "nappy-headed hoes" is racist and that the real cause of racism in the US are folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - so I can pretty much guess where you'll come out on that premise). So, let's concentrate on getting our house in order instead of giving oxygen to crude and neandethal pulled-out-from-the-backside "reports"! SMDH

[tfco]

With the immense talent on the continent, only three teams – Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon – have ever reached the quarter finals of the World Cup.

[txj]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

Might well be case...

But the so-called 'report' is predicated upon rather obtuse (for starters, there is no demonstrable correlation between youth and ability among SENIOR national teams) and in fact, quite racist assumptions (and I realize that you do not not think that an old white dude that calling young African-American ladies that he has never met "nappy-headed hoes" is racist and that the real cause of racism in the US are folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - so I can pretty much guess where you'll come out on that premise). So, let's concentrate on getting our house in order instead of giving oxygen to crude and neandethal pulled-out-from-the-backside "reports"! SMDH

The connection is so obvious one can drive a mack truck through it.

[Gotti]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

Might well be case...

But the so-called 'report' is predicated upon rather obtuse (for starters, there is no demonstrable correlation between youth and ability among SENIOR national teams) and in fact, quite racist assumptions (and I realize that you do not not think that an old white dude that calling young African-American ladies that he has never met "nappy-headed hoes" is racist and that the real cause of racism in the US are folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - so I can pretty much guess where you'll come out on that premise). So, let's concentrate on getting our house in order instead of giving oxygen to crude and neandethal pulled-out-from-the-backside "reports"! SMDH

The connection is so obvious one can drive a mack truck through it.

Nothing surprising when an Uncle Tom shows up and arse-kisses the crappy "report"!

Even the chart posted by these wankers show that the older senior national teams in countries like Spain and Germany still far outperformed younger teams like England and Korea Republic (or a much older Portugal over younger Israel or Albania)! SMDH@

[Super Eagle]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the issue. I can tell you, without any fear of contradictions that, in the case of Nigeria, lack of organization, incompetent coaches (eg. Keshi) and poor planning impact our performance at the senior levels more than age cheating. At the junior levels, you can win with natural talent alone but you need more than that to do well at the senior level.

O pari

[deanotito]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

Might well be case...

But the so-called 'report' is predicated upon rather obtuse (for starters, there is no demonstrable correlation between youth and ability among SENIOR national teams) and in fact, quite racist assumptions (and I realize that you do not not think that an old white dude that calling young African-American ladies that he has never met "nappy-headed hoes" is racist and that the real cause of racism in the US are folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - so I can pretty much guess where you'll come out on that premise). So, let's concentrate on getting our house in order instead of giving oxygen to crude and neandethal pulled-out-from-the-backside "reports"! SMDH

You obviously missed the first 2 lines of the post. I said, and repeat, that this is no news. I and some others have been saying this for years. So didn't need a report - and said as much in the post. You can disagree...this is a forum after all. Wouldn't be much of a forum without disagreement ... Rather not go down your racial angle...pretty much a distraction.

[Waffiman]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

Might well be case...

But the so-called 'report' is predicated upon rather obtuse (for starters, there is no demonstrable correlation between youth and ability among SENIOR national teams) and in fact, quite racist assumptions (and I realize that you do not not think that an old white dude that calling young African-American ladies that he has never met "nappy-headed hoes" is racist and that the real cause of racism in the US are folks like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton - so I can pretty much guess where you'll come out on that premise). So, let's concentrate on getting our house in order instead of giving oxygen to crude and neandethal pulled-out-from-the-backside "reports"! SMDH

The connection is so obvious one can drive a mack truck through it.

Come on txj. That so called report offers no proof whatsoever of a positive correlation between youth and senior national teams. We all know so many other factor come into play when considering player development from youth football to senior football.

You expect a report of that magnitude to come up with a serious study citing examples and offering empirical evidence which is irrefutable. You do not expect such a report to substantiate rumours, innuendos, suspicions and prejudice.

You and I may have suspicions, and we can cite examples with some Nigerian players, that age cheating is one reason why we do not carry our youth performances to senior level. But these are personal positions, we have no proof and we certainly do not have any credible evidence to back up our suspicions. The fact that we have such suspicions does not make it a fact.

What is not acceptable is CIES hiding under the mask of a credibility perpetuating and substantiating rumours, innuendos, suspicions and prejudice. They really should be pulled up for that piece of racist trash they call a report.

[Enugu II]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/age-cheati ... 02414.html

Despite fielding the youngest players in A national teams in 2015, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon continue to remain underachievers due to endemic age cheating, a CIES report has stated.

In its January 2016 report, the Swiss-based Football Observatory cast doubt on the declared ages of African footballers which it claims is responsible for the untapped potential of African teams in senior football.

Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are listed as having fielded the youngest players among 50 sampled A national teams in 2015 – 24.7, 25.1 and 25.3 years respectively.

“However, this result must be analysed carefully insofar as footballers born in Africa tend to be older than they claim to be,” stated the report.

With the immense talent on the continent, only three teams – Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon – have ever reached the quarter finals of the World Cup.

However, both Nigeria and Ghana have regularly won world titles at youth levels, with Nigeria winning a record fifth Under-17 world title last October.

“Lying about one’s age is a common practice that implies a competitive advantage in youth categories,” said the report.

“However, in the long term, this strategy is counterproductive as it does not provide optimum conditions for the full development of talent.

“This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Fielding young players has its advantages as the report highlighted the impact of youth in the England national team that qualified seamlessly for the 2016 European Championship.

However, the Netherlands were let down by youth as they failed to qualify for the same tournament despite fielding players with an average age of 25.6 years, the same with England.

“In the first case, the bias towards youth has not been a success as the Dutch failed to qualify for Euro 2016. For the English, on the other hand, the results have been more positive.

“The youthfulness of the players available to Roy Hodgson is the sign of a renaissance which suggests a promising future,” the report said.

The remaining teams in the top 10 are Korea Republic, Algeria, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

This is a very incomplete and simplistic way of looking at why African are not performing better at world stage.

Just a few things to note. First, this is a summary of the report so I can only focus on this summary. Here are questions that it raises for me:

1. If the impact of youth on England NT is the latter's seamless qualification for the 2016 Euro, I wonder why the impact of African youth players is reaching the World Cup final and not qualifying for the CAN? Am I missing something?

2. If the report notes that the same youth did not help Netherlands, what then is convincing about U17 influence at the most senior level? Is it not then significant to point to the impact of youth in WC qualification of those African teams which the report cites as among the youngest at the WC? Instead, it dismisses their youth based on speculation and not on convincing data!

3. BTW, Nigeria can actually cite a more impactful youth influence on its football by looking at how the U17 squad of 1993 impacted the 1996 winning of the Olympics.

4. For me, the report (atleast the summary here) is short on logic given its inability to fully establish the premise (see the conflict in case of England v Netherlands) from which it attempts to draw conclusions about African failures at the World Cup. At best, it barely holds clutches at the plausible statement “This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Just my tuppence.

[deanotito]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the issue. I can tell you, without any fear of contradictions that, in the case of Nigeria, lack of organization, incompetent coaches (eg. Keshi) and poor planning impact our performance at the senior levels more than age cheating. At the junior levels, you can win with natural talent alone but you need more than that to do well at the senior level.

O pari

There are many factors that affect Nigerian soccer negatively, some of which you have mentioned. But in addition to having "young" players that flame out earlier than they should, in the last 10 years, European clubs started "pricing in" this age suspicion ...it only makes sense that they would. When Kanu's coach is guessing that he's 50 while Kanu is in his employ, you can only imagine what is happening to lesser known players. In my honest opinion, there is a strong correlation between top class club football and national team success. If clubs can't trust your real age, they're not going to take the risk.

[Otitokoro]

I agree with you.
The elements you highlighted play a bigger role than age cheating, in my opinion.

Since 1994, when Nigeria first played in the WC, games between Nigeria and all the so-called 'big teams' have been extremely close. The difference has always been attributed to that extra development or fitness level or tactical/organizational edge which African teams lack, and it certainly has nothing to do with age. Case in point - look at the stark difference between African football leagues and those in Europe...night and day.

If and when Nigeria/African teams get their act together, we will be able to compete for the WC on a consistent basis.

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the issue. I can tell you, without any fear of contradictions that, in the case of Nigeria, lack of organization, incompetent coaches (eg. Keshi) and poor planning impact our performance at the senior levels more than age cheating. At the junior levels, you can win with natural talent alone but you need more than that to do well at the senior level.

O pari

[deanotito]

I agree with you.
The elements you highlighted play a bigger role than age cheating, in my opinion.

Since 1994, when Nigeria first played in the WC, games between Nigeria and all the so-called 'big teams' have been extremely close. The difference has always been attributed to that extra development or fitness level or tactical/organizational edge which African teams lack, and it certainly has nothing to do with age. Case in point - look at the stark difference between African football leagues and those in Europe...night and day.

If and when Nigeria/African teams get their act together, we will be able to compete for the WC on a consistent basis.

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the issue. I can tell you, without any fear of contradictions that, in the case of Nigeria, lack of organization, incompetent coaches (eg. Keshi) and poor planning impact our performance at the senior levels more than age cheating. At the junior levels, you can win with natural talent alone but you need more than that to do well at the senior level.

O pari

Have you considered why our players lack this fitness/tactical organization, and very 4 years, it looks like we're starting over? We've been playing in the same leagues with the Europeans for 30 years now, you know?

Football is about development. Europeans start early and put kids in academies. These kids grow, and develop step by step. By the time they're 22, they have little experience, but low mileage. So they can spend some of the mileage getting experience so that when they're 25-27, they're taking on the world in a tactically and technically organized manner.

Compare the 22 yr old European kid to the Nigerian "22" who happens to be really 27. He also has little experience but unlike the European, he has high mileage and a lot of wear and tear. If he and the European kid get the same kind of experience, by the time they are "ready" he is really 30, while his European counterpart is 25. He has a lot of experience, but we suddenly notice that our left back is being raped on the wings by Kenyan wingers while we try to qualify for the World Cup. We then go on the hunt for "new blood", and get another "22" year old...we get to the World Cup, play a close game, and get eliminated because of tactical/organizational naïveté. The 30 yr old had the right experience but his legs were gone. The new kid on the block has all the legs but none of the tactical experience.
The cycle continues 4 years later, when the new "22" we hired 4 years ago is now really 30 and is being raped again by Malawian defenders...that's why we haven't progressed on the world stage

[Gotti]

This is no news...we've been saying this on these pages for years. I personally think bone scans were the best thing to happen to Nigerian soccer in 20 years.

By age cheating, we simply hurt ourselves...

That's a very simplistic way of looking at the issue. I can tell you, without any fear of contradictions that, in the case of Nigeria, lack of organization, incompetent coaches (eg. Keshi) and poor planning impact our performance at the senior levels more than age cheating. At the junior levels, you can win with natural talent alone but you need more than that to do well at the senior level.

O pari

Apart from the Keshi part of course. If Keshi (who matched our best senior-level accomplishments) was Oyinbo, all of our t-shirt and powerpoint-idolizing Uncle Toms would be combustibly nutting!

[Gotti]

Have you considered why our players lack this fitness/tactical organization, and very 4 years, it looks like we're starting over? We've been playing in the same leagues with the Europeans for 30 years now, you know?

Football is about development. Europeans start early and put kids in academies. These kids grow, and develop step by step. By the time they're 22, they have little experience, but low mileage. So they can spend some of the mileage getting experience so that when they're 25-27, they're taking on the world in a tactically and technically organized manner.

Compare the 22 yr old European kid to the Nigerian "22" who happens to be really 27. He also has little experience but unlike the European, he has high mileage and a lot of wear and tear. If he and the European kid get the same kind of experience, by the time they are "ready" he is really 30, while his European counterpart is 25. He has a lot of experience, but we suddenly notice that our left back is being raped on the wings by Kenyan wingers while we try to qualify for the World Cup. We then go on the hunt for "new blood", and get another "22" year old...we get to the World Cup, play a close game, and get eliminated because of tactical/organizational naïveté. The 30 yr old had the right experience but his legs were gone. The new kid on the block has all the legs but none of the tactical experience.
The cycle continues 4 years later, when the new "22" we hired 4 years ago is now really 30 and is being raped again by Malawian defenders...that's why we haven't progressed on the world stage

All this pendatry does not explain why England (with all of its youth development and experience) has not won a single competition in half a century... age-cheaters obviously! SMDH

[truetalk]

Despite fielding the youngest players in A national teams in 2015, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon continue to remain underachievers due to endemic age cheating,

This is probably the dumbest thing I will read this year, and I feel genuinely sorry for anyone building a case on a report that makes this statement as its premise & maybe even its conclusion.

Carlos Khameni & Barth Ogbeche are still playing professional football in European leagues almost 20 years after debuting for their National teams.

Pointless wasting any more brain cells on this rubbish.

[deanotito]

Have you considered why our players lack this fitness/tactical organization, and very 4 years, it looks like we're starting over? We've been playing in the same leagues with the Europeans for 30 years now, you know?

Football is about development. Europeans start early and put kids in academies. These kids grow, and develop step by step. By the time they're 22, they have little experience, but low mileage. So they can spend some of the mileage getting experience so that when they're 25-27, they're taking on the world in a tactically and technically organized manner.

Compare the 22 yr old European kid to the Nigerian "22" who happens to be really 27. He also has little experience but unlike the European, he has high mileage and a lot of wear and tear. If he and the European kid get the same kind of experience, by the time they are "ready" he is really 30, while his European counterpart is 25. He has a lot of experience, but we suddenly notice that our left back is being raped on the wings by Kenyan wingers while we try to qualify for the World Cup. We then go on the hunt for "new blood", and get another "22" year old...we get to the World Cup, play a close game, and get eliminated because of tactical/organizational naïveté. The 30 yr old had the right experience but his legs were gone. The new kid on the block has all the legs but none of the tactical experience.
The cycle continues 4 years later, when the new "22" we hired 4 years ago is now really 30 and is being raped again by Malawian defenders...that's why we haven't progressed on the world stage

All this pendatry does not explain why England (with all of its youth development and experience) has not won a single competition in half a century... age-cheaters obviously!

Sadly, not a commentary on England. I could care less about them ... You can substitute the name of England for Jamaica....wouldn't make a difference.

Nigeria on the other hand, has unique challenges. We dominate age grade football, but flame out at the senior levels. England does not dominate any level of soccer, and neither does Jamaica...so it tells you that there are unique reasons why Nigeria hasn't made that step up. You can have your thoughts about why that is, and I can have mine. I'm sure they're doing the same on England national team forums. Argentina and Brazil are better comparators to Nigeria, as we all have similar experiences at youth level.

Let's hypothesize for a second that there in fact is rampant age cheating in Nigeria... Would you expect that to negatively affect Nigerian senior football or not?? If you would, then your England point is just another distraction

[Cito]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/age-cheati ... 02414.html

Despite fielding the youngest players in A national teams in 2015, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon continue to remain underachievers due to endemic age cheating, a CIES report has stated.

In its January 2016 report, the Swiss-based Football Observatory cast doubt on the declared ages of African footballers which it claims is responsible for the untapped potential of African teams in senior football.

Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are listed as having fielded the youngest players among 50 sampled A national teams in 2015 – 24.7, 25.1 and 25.3 years respectively.

“However, this result must be analysed carefully insofar as footballers born in Africa tend to be older than they claim to be,” stated the report.

With the immense talent on the continent, only three teams – Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon – have ever reached the quarter finals of the World Cup.

However, both Nigeria and Ghana have regularly won world titles at youth levels, with Nigeria winning a record fifth Under-17 world title last October.

“Lying about one’s age is a common practice that implies a competitive advantage in youth categories,” said the report.

“However, in the long term, this strategy is counterproductive as it does not provide optimum conditions for the full development of talent.

“This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Fielding young players has its advantages as the report highlighted the impact of youth in the England national team that qualified seamlessly for the 2016 European Championship.

However, the Netherlands were let down by youth as they failed to qualify for the same tournament despite fielding players with an average age of 25.6 years, the same with England.

“In the first case, the bias towards youth has not been a success as the Dutch failed to qualify for Euro 2016. For the English, on the other hand, the results have been more positive.

“The youthfulness of the players available to Roy Hodgson is the sign of a renaissance which suggests a promising future,” the report said.

The remaining teams in the top 10 are Korea Republic, Algeria, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

This is a very incomplete and simplistic way of looking at why African are not performing better at world stage.

Just a few things to note. First, this is a summary of the report so I can only focus on this summary. Here are questions that it raises for me:

1. If the impact of youth on England NT is the latter's seamless qualification for the 2016 Euro, I wonder why the impact of African youth players is reaching the World Cup final and not qualifying for the CAN? Am I missing something?

2. If the report notes that the same youth did not help Netherlands, what then is convincing about U17 influence at the most senior level? Is it not then significant to point to the impact of youth in WC qualification of those African teams which the report cites as among the youngest at the WC? Instead, it dismisses their youth based on speculation and not on convincing data!

3. BTW, Nigeria can actually cite a more impactful youth influence on its football by looking at how the U17 squad of 1993 impacted the 1996 winning of the Olympics.

4. For me, the report (atleast the summary here) is short on logic given its inability to fully establish the premise (see the conflict in case of England v Netherlands) from which it attempts to draw conclusions about African failures at the World Cup. At best, it barely holds clutches at the plausible statement “This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Just my tuppence.

Full Report;
Interesting read;
http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG ... r/mr11/en/

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=268360

[metalalloy]

I read this with interest until i got to this section:

Fielding young players has its advantages as the report highlighted the impact of youth in the England national team that qualified seamlessly for the 2016 European Championship.

However, the Netherlands were let down by youth as they failed to qualify for the same tournament despite fielding players with an average age of 25.6 years, the same with England.

“In the first case, the bias towards youth has not been a success as the Dutch failed to qualify for Euro 2016. For the English, on the other hand, the results have been more positive.

So youth helped England and the exact same age failed the Netherlands, so we are back to square one abi? Doesn't this suggest that something other than mere age is playing a factor here?

[folem]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/age-cheati ... 02414.html

Despite fielding the youngest players in A national teams in 2015, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon continue to remain underachievers due to endemic age cheating, a CIES report has stated.

In its January 2016 report, the Swiss-based Football Observatory cast doubt on the declared ages of African footballers which it claims is responsible for the untapped potential of African teams in senior football.

Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are listed as having fielded the youngest players among 50 sampled A national teams in 2015 – 24.7, 25.1 and 25.3 years respectively.

“However, this result must be analysed carefully insofar as footballers born in Africa tend to be older than they claim to be,” stated the report.

With the immense talent on the continent, only three teams – Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon – have ever reached the quarter finals of the World Cup.

However, both Nigeria and Ghana have regularly won world titles at youth levels, with Nigeria winning a record fifth Under-17 world title last October.

“Lying about one’s age is a common practice that implies a competitive advantage in youth categories,” said the report.

“However, in the long term, this strategy is counterproductive as it does not provide optimum conditions for the full development of talent.

“This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Fielding young players has its advantages as the report highlighted the impact of youth in the England national team that qualified seamlessly for the 2016 European Championship.

However, the Netherlands were let down by youth as they failed to qualify for the same tournament despite fielding players with an average age of 25.6 years, the same with England.

“In the first case, the bias towards youth has not been a success as the Dutch failed to qualify for Euro 2016. For the English, on the other hand, the results have been more positive.

“The youthfulness of the players available to Roy Hodgson is the sign of a renaissance which suggests a promising future,” the report said.

The remaining teams in the top 10 are Korea Republic, Algeria, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium.

This is a very incomplete and simplistic way of looking at why African are not performing better at world stage.

Just a few things to note. First, this is a summary of the report so I can only focus on this summary. Here are questions that it raises for me:

1. If the impact of youth on England NT is the latter's seamless qualification for the 2016 Euro, I wonder why the impact of African youth players is reaching the World Cup final and not qualifying for the CAN? Am I missing something?

2. If the report notes that the same youth did not help Netherlands, what then is convincing about U17 influence at the most senior level? Is it not then significant to point to the impact of youth in WC qualification of those African teams which the report cites as among the youngest at the WC? Instead, it dismisses their youth based on speculation and not on convincing data!

3. BTW, Nigeria can actually cite a more impactful youth influence on its football by looking at how the U17 squad of 1993 impacted the 1996 winning of the Olympics.

4. For me, the report (atleast the summary here) is short on logic given its inability to fully establish the premise (see the conflict in case of England v Netherlands) from which it attempts to draw conclusions about African failures at the World Cup. At best, it barely holds clutches at the plausible statement “This is one of the reasons for which the real potential of African squads remains untapped.”

Just my tuppence.

KPOM.

[Cristao II]

When I read reports, I often ask who funded it, who is it for and why was the report done. Abeg so who funded this report, who is it for and why was it done? Because to me, if they needed to pay someone to come up with this incomplete chest beating crap, they wasted money.

Nigeria's major problem is not age cheating unless the NFF administrators are age cheating.