Sterling tweets : well done Uncle Kelechi..

[ardile]

Somebody dey reskirt hin elder, instead to praise am for good behavior and commend his parents for bringing up a respectFool son, na habius una dey abuse the poor boy.... OK. next time hin slap Bro Kelechi for head make una nor cornPlane o!

Arsenal for life! Choi, even winning back-to-back FA cups and Community Shields, while defeating Mourinho finally no even bring you out of hibernation. Na wa o. Thank God for Kelechi...

I ran into Maazi OhSee a few days ago, the rest is............

[ardile]

Somebody dey reskirt hin elder, instead to praise am for good behavior and commend his parents for bringing up a respectFool son, na habius una dey abuse the poor boy.... OK. next time hin slap Bro Kelechi for head make una nor cornPlane o!

Wonderment!

Ardile na your eye be dis?

When dem relea... wen you graduate?

bros, nor to ma fort, wen Donald dey tromp all over the plays, na hin make me abandon ma Pee aysH Dee in hideology and begin ShowFaceology degree, who knows.....pesin wey enter river fit get wet....... bigger meeRaCools don happened bifor!

[opine]

I'm not going to take the time to read this thread but I can only imagine why in the world it is this long

[FATHER TIKO]

Leave Father Tiko alone, the man making Mudashiru Lawal play no 4

Oga Prince, Muda play 4 no be better thing?

[ohsee]

Nna, your argument is similar to what officialdom says in athletics in response to steroid abuse – we are improving testing, random testing, this guy is the most tested athlete, blah blah.

Once again, this statement most clearly reveals the flawed logic in your position. So because this is what "officialdom" says, ohsee must be doing the same thing? I don't have to explain what is wrong with such a statement.

It is really funny how you distort my argument in order to make a phantom point. B/c something can be done to tamper with MRI scans, it casts doubts on the credibility of the process. The argument was never that the process was tampered with. It is that you should take it with a large dose of salt, instead of the blind faith you are displaying.

You complain about distorting--not that I see any in your explanation--then engage in distorting yourself. OK, let us not distort your argument then. So I should take the whole process with a grain of salt, the CAF tests that sent three Nigerians home, Nigeria's tests aimed at avoiding embarrassment, and FIFA's tests, all within the same period?

You seem to have shifted the goalposts--initially, you said we should not trust Nigeria; then I presented you with evidence that there were three stages of tests carried out by three different organizations, two non-Nigerian. Now you have gone to your fall back position that we should "take everything with a grain of salt," without presenting a good explanation why.

Of course we should take EVERYTHING with a "grain of salt." Based on your reasoning, we should act as if ALL planes we enter will crash, and ignore the safety record of modern airlines because a handful have crashed. We should not travel by air at all.

Even your own BBC link quoting Okeleji (problem reduced) and Akpoborie (need everyone to unite to eliminate/a lot still needs to be done) suggests the problem is still there despite all the MRI scans. Akpoborie said the problem is “rampant” and the “biggest problem” the game faces in Africa. Notice he was not speaking in past tense. "It has been a big problem and still is”.

This is funny. Did he say that there was still a problem with Kelechi's U-17 team? He spoke in general terms about age cheating; MRI is not possible with U-20 teams--yes, they still have a problem. We are talking about Kelechi and the rigorous process of MRI testing WITH THIS ONE U-17 TEAM. Bringing in people making general statements about age cheating is exactly what I have accused you of, which is making hand-waving generalizations without looking at specifics.

I don’t remember claiming steps were not being taken to deal with the problem. I’m just not like you and others who believe b/c steps are being taken, we can now accept any official age.

You realize you are guilty of doing what you complain about?

The two examples I cited show the possibility in rigging the scans. We only know of those examples b/c they were high profile. It doesn’t make sense to dismiss them as isolated incidents. What the examples do is cast doubt over the reliability of something managed by Nigerian officials with a propensity to cheat. What makes it similar to passports is that it is run by people willing to cheat and the chances of getting away with it are high.

The teams were tested in April by CAF. They were tested again by Nigerians when a hue and cry was raised about possible embarrassment in the UAE; the testing sent six, possibly more, home. Then they were tested again by FIFA at the tournament, and unlike the last competition, nobody was sent home. Please take all this into account. I asked you to come up with sound reasoning. You clearly have not.

Your links show that Fifa conducts random sampling, while Nigeria claims to test all the players. I simply do not share your faith in the Nigerian tests. The logic that the Nigerian officials are acting in good faith is on seriously shaky ground, considering the history of officials benefiting from age cheating.

Yes, more hand-waving belief from past experience, nothing concrete. cic, this is a case where you need to adjust your beliefs. No one is asking you to throw out your beliefs about age cheating in Nigeria.

What we are asking you to do is accept that, THIS PARTICULAR TEAM, BASED ON THEIR EXPERIENCE AND THE EVIDENCE, MIGHT BE DIFFERENT.

1) This is the most rigorously tested U-17 team in our history. The chance that there is age cheating on this team is actually very low no matter your general beliefs about Nigerian fraudulence.

2) IN ADDITION, this is a team full of academy players. Unlike other age cheating teams, there is no evidence any of them has played anywhere else. If you have such evidence, please provide it. Otherwise you have no case.

3) FURTHERMORE, we actually have photographs of their progression through other age grade teams, photos that provide visual evidence that Kelechi was a kid when he came to the UK in 2010 to play U-13 soccer.

So please people, let's do some real reasoning when we talk about these things, reasoning that is supported by some form of evidence, instead of beer parlour general hand-waving statements.

[ohsee]

Calling a spade a spade . Come on, we all know Kelechi is at least 24.

Nigerians usually accept age cheating that is not more than 10 years above the official age.

It's true: Nigerians all know something without any form of investigation whatsoever, without any evidence at all. E wu umu azhi? You be small pikin? Are you a child? Everybody knows it. Of course it is true, how can it not be? It is true because I think it, and if I think it, it must be true.

And we wonder why we are backward, and then blame Oyibo for our backwardness. Soon Oyibo journalists will travel to Owerri and do the necessary due diligence that our own journalists and our people in general are too lazy to do, and prove to us that Kelechi is the age he says he is.

[ohsee]

A photo of "31 year old" Kelechi from our very own site in 2012, well before anybody knew who he was.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=226368&p=3652824&hi ... o#p3652824
Posted by Catalyst no less, with the caption:
"Future Stars: Kelechi Iheanacho and Alhassan Ibrahim (Right)"


Does he not look 34 guys?

[okidoki]

A photo of "31 year old" Kelechi from our very own site in 2012.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=226368&p=3652824&hi ... o#p3652824
Posted by Catalyst no less, with the caption:
"Future Stars: Kelechi Iheanacho and Alhassan Ibrahim (Right)"


Does he not look 34 guys?

Leave these guys alone. I will put it to you, nobody pulls of age cheating successfully at u-13 level, if you succeed it will be a year or two of what you are claiming. You simply can't fool anyone at that age.

[ohsee]

Leave these guys alone. I will put it to you, nobody pulls of age cheating successfully at u-13 level, if you succeed it will be a year or two of what you are claiming. You simply can't fool anyone at that age.

Chief, on CE, you really have to pummel guys before they accept they are wrong, really have to smash them. I'm on holiday, and I am gathering as much information as I can. I am even tempted to put in information-seeking calls to Owerri that I will record and replay here. I'm not done, I still dey come.

[opine]

Leave these guys alone. I will put it to you, nobody pulls of age cheating successfully at u-13 level, if you succeed it will be a year or two of what you are claiming. You simply can't fool anyone at that age.

Chief, on CE, you really have to pummel guys before they accept they are wrong, really have to smash them. I'm on holiday, and I am gathering as much information as I can. I am even tempted to put in information-seeking calls to Owerri that I will record and replay here. I'm not done, I still dey come.

[cic old boy]

Oga Ohsee, your responses to my points prove nothing but the fact you have a lot of time in your hands.

For e.g. I said what you are claiming is SIMILAR to officialdom’s response to doping in athletics. Your response then is: so b/c officialdom is saying it, Ohsee is must be doing the same thing! I actually showed in the next sentence why your response is similar to what officialdom is saying in athletics. They claim they have taken steps to combat doping – random testing, off-competition testing, this or that athlete being the most tested in history, etc. We know they are testing, we just know that the cheats are ahead of the testers.

You have presented arguments about MRI scan (just like official responses) to show something is being done. Nobody claimed nothing is being done. The claim is that cheating is still a huge problem despite official efforts. My argument is that your faith in official efforts is misplaced – especially as even the people interviewed in your links accept the problem is still there.

My argument is quite clear. You are just trying to muddy the waters. This is my position: I am no expert in the science of MRI so have no strong views on its validity. I believe Nigerian officials’ running the scans are not above board. The requirement from Fifa is that MRI scans are mandatory at U-17 level, but this should be done by the individual FAs. Fifa (or CAF) then conduct random scans. This has been the position since 2009. In the same 2009, Fortune Chukwudi, a 30 something player captained Nigeria at U-17, allegedly passing an MRI scan.

Taking your own example from 2013, Nigeria was required to run mandatory scans, in which the accuracy rate is said to be 99%. They went to Morocco and 3 were sent home after a random test. 3 out of a squad of 23 is about 13%. Is that enough for you to see how Nigerian officials can mess up your 99% accuracy rate? If 13% fail a random test on something that is supposed to be 99% accurate, how much faith do you have that the remaining 87% are genuine 17 year olds? Is that “reasoning supported by evidence” (from you!) that you can’t trust tests conducted by corrupt officials in Nigeria? Officials that told you a 30-something Chukwudi is 17 and a 16 year old Obinwa is overage!

The point about a team of academy players is really funny. Have you been to any of those academies? What gives you confidence that the academies are not packed with overage players?

You really don’t want to go down the route of photographs. We already have a photograph of the “older” Sterling and the “younger uncle” Kelechi.

[marutimon]

Still going at it. Ridiculous.

Kelechi Iheanacho - the age cheat world class talent kept hidden from the world at large and also a mutant capable of growing several centimeters at adulthood... also capable of pretending to be a 13 year old boy by shrinking on request... a true phenomenon... also known as "Ant Man".

[Tbite]

Many Nigerians have a syndrome, which is to bring other Nigerians down.

We have a dog eat dog mentality. We cannot look towards the success of all our people. Rather we have a pathetic dog eat dog attitude.

Here we have a young chap, doing great things on the highest stage...yet the only thing some people can think of is to try to bring him down. His only crime, being that he is a Nigerian.

The perpetrators of course, have no shred of evidence.

[Comrade Machel]

Calling a spade a spade . Come on, we all know Kelechi is at least 24.

[andyk1012]

I have said it before n I will say it again. This cic bobo is just full of .... he should b in a remote village somewhere throwing his young kinsmen that are making it juju... that is d kind of person he is. Full of hate.

[cic old boy]

I have said it before n I will say it again. This cic bobo is just full of .... he should b in a remote village somewhere throwing his young kinsmen that are making it juju... that is d kind of person he is. Full of hate.

Very useful contribution to the discussion.

[kzz5joa]

Oga Ohsee, your responses to my points prove nothing but the fact you have a lot of time in your hands.

For e.g. I said what you are claiming is SIMILAR to officialdom’s response to doping in athletics. Your response then is: so b/c officialdom is saying it, Ohsee is must be doing the same thing! I actually showed in the next sentence why your response is similar to what officialdom is saying in athletics. They claim they have taken steps to combat doping – random testing, off-competition testing, this or that athlete being the most tested in history, etc. We know they are testing, we just know that the cheats are ahead of the testers.

You have presented arguments about MRI scan (just like official responses) to show something is being done. Nobody claimed nothing is being done. The claim is that cheating is still a huge problem despite official efforts. My argument is that your faith in official efforts is misplaced – especially as even the people interviewed in your links accept the problem is still there.

My argument is quite clear. You are just trying to muddy the waters. This is my position: I am no expert in the science of MRI so have no strong views on its validity. I believe Nigerian officials’ running the scans are not above board. The requirement from Fifa is that MRI scans are mandatory at U-17 level, but this should be done by the individual FAs. Fifa (or CAF) then conduct random scans. This has been the position since 2009. In the same 2009, Fortune Chukwudi, a 30 something player captained Nigeria at U-17, allegedly passing an MRI scan.

Taking your own example from 2013, Nigeria was required to run mandatory scans, in which the accuracy rate is said to be 99%. They went to Morocco and 3 were sent home after a random test. 3 out of a squad of 23 is about 13%. Is that enough for you to see how Nigerian officials can mess up your 99% accuracy rate? If 13% fail a random test on something that is supposed to be 99% accurate, how much faith do you have that the remaining 87% are genuine 17 year olds? Is that “reasoning supported by evidence” (from you!) that you can’t trust tests conducted by corrupt officials in Nigeria? Officials that told you a 30-something Chukwudi is 17 and a 16 year old Obinwa is overage!

The point about a team of academy players is really funny. Have you been to any of those academies? What gives you confidence that the academies are not packed with overage players?

You really don’t want to go down the route of photographs. We already have a photograph of the “older” Sterling and the “younger uncle” Kelechi.

I'm not so sure anyone has been arguing about the "general" cheating escapades. What is in question is the players from the 2013 set and Kelechi in particular. While antecedents may lead us to doubt the NFF, the fact remains that this set was arguably the most scrutinized as far as the correctness of their age both by NFF and other international organizations - this has to count for something. In addition, there has been quite a lot of circumstantial evidence to suggest that Kelechi's age is close enough to 18. The evidence includes the testing process and the photographs throughout the years.

Your argument suggests that you do not accept these evidences given the one you referenced. You should remember that you cannot use a single photograph as evidence when you have a preponderance of others spread through the years. You'd have to speak to these others so that we can believe your inference about the photograph with the 'older' Sterling and the 'younger uncle' Kelechi'.

[Catalyst]

Pa Ohsee, Catalyst no less? Did I make any negative remark about Kelechi's age?

Do not tell me no less is for another of our fights you brought to this thread.

PS. It is well. I am grateful to the people in the community on both sides of the isle working hard to clean up our image in pro-leagues in Europe. At least it has yielded positive results: Success, Iheanacho, *Simon, Awoniyi, Yahaya, Nwakali, Chidera etc. All plying their trades in top leagues (EPL, La Liga, Portugal, and well..... Moses Simon is playing for the top club in Belgie).

[1naija]

Leave these guys alone. I will put it to you, nobody pulls of age cheating successfully at u-13 level, if you succeed it will be a year or two of what you are claiming. You simply can't fool anyone at that age.

Chief, on CE, you really have to pummel guys before they accept they are wrong, really have to smash them. I'm on holiday, and I am gathering as much information as I can. I am even tempted to put in information-seeking calls to Owerri that I will record and replay here. I'm not done, I still dey come.

Uncle Ohsee this thing wey you dey carry for head go wound you o! So does he look like a 15 year old Nigerian to you in that picture?

[1naija]

A photo of "31 year old" Kelechi from our very own site in 2012, well before anybody knew who he was.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=226368&p=3652824&hi ... o#p3652824
Posted by Catalyst no less, with the caption:
"Future Stars: Kelechi Iheanacho and Alhassan Ibrahim (Right)"


Does he not look 34 guys?

No he does not look 34 in this picture, but if you ask if he looks 24 or 25 you may get a different answer. Abi?

[Rawlings]

[ohsee]

A photo of "31 year old" Kelechi from our very own site in 2012, well before anybody knew who he was.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=226368&p=3652824&hi ... o#p3652824
Posted by Catalyst no less, with the caption:
"Future Stars: Kelechi Iheanacho and Alhassan Ibrahim (Right)"


Does he not look 34 guys?

No he does not look 34 in this picture, but if you ask if he looks 24 or 25 you may get a different answer. Abi?

My guy, I asked my son and my wife to guess his age. They said he looks 15 or 16. These are people without any vested emotional interest in his age.

Some of you on the other hand, think a 24 year old would rather be rotting in an academy playing with kids when he could be making money and improving his skills playing for Enyimba FC.

Bros, I am 100% certain, na you go wound over this topic, and I will rub it in when it happens.

Photographic history:

2008


2010


2012


2013




And for those who want to look at more photos, here is his Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kelechi- ... tos_stream

[ohsee]

Pa Ohsee, Catalyst no less? Did I make any negative remark about Kelechi's age?

Do not tell me no less is for another of our fights you brought to this thread.

PS. It is well. I am grateful to the people in the community on both sides of the isle working hard to clean up our image in pro-leagues in Europe. At least it has yielded positive results: Success, Iheanacho, *Simon, Awoniyi, Yahaya, Nwakali, Chidera etc. All plying their trades in top leagues (EPL, La Liga, Portugal, and well..... Moses Simon is playing for the top club in Belgie).

Bros, no vex, I am praising you.