NPFL Top Scorer Sanusi Passes U17 MRI Test but ........

[maceo4]

Oga Damunk, I hear you, but my question would be how do we know they are 20,21 I’m hoping there’s good reason to assume that is their age and not just hearsay. I just hate forming conclusions off hearsay that’s all. If they are lying at some point they will get caught up in the tangled web and be dealt with that way.

[amafolas]

I heard on radio last week that he once claimed to have played in a Primary School football tournament in 2008.

Here we go with the rumors...In fact let me start my own....I know his brothers aunties uncles grand fathers son and from what they told me there is no way he could be the age he's claiming...

I mean shouldn't these guys be able to go and find factual proof rather than conjecture and stories?

Have you ever tried to find 'factual proof' of the househelp from the village who came to live with you and is looking after your children?
Try it...you just might discover how foktop the system is.
For real.

Its a little different, in this case you know where this boy came from you can find out the teams/tournaments in that area where he played and try to see what information he was registered under and if it contradicts what he used to play in the NPFL. Even if everybody is complicit and they've all doctored those documents (highly unlikely), he still passed MRI which enhances his case. All I'm saying is doesn't he deserve benefit of the doubt based on this? Give me something credible that discredits his claims then I'll listen, but its unfair to pain EVERYBODY with a broad brush...

I believe the MRI is the game changer in all this but I am increasingly suspicious of what is going on at the local MRI centres.

Stories abound of large numbers of 20 yr old and even much older players "beating" the MRI. This defies simple logic. Unless Nigerians are a completely different species from the rest of humanity and nobody has noticed until the advent of FIFA's MRI rules, there is no way these old men are 'beating' the MRI scans legitimately.

What I suspect is that the human factor ('intra and inter-observer error') in the scanning process is at play here and without having to explain too much, the radiographers (technicians) and/or the radiologists (doctors) are playing a fast one, for a fee of course. No amount of intra or interobserver 'error' can account for 21-year olds 'passing' the MRI test in such large numbers, talk less of older men. That is just gross incompetence, or straight-up fraud. Lives depend on the accurate and competent interpretation of MRI scans all over the world and if it were so unreliable it would have been scrapped ages ago. Nigeria has highly qualified radiologists, so who is doing the interpretation and who in fact is doing the scanning?

You can be sure that those old players 'beating' the local MRI scans will NOT pass those same scans when done competently or by a neutral body.

Damunk,

The point you make above is definitely key. But let me also add that because MRI tests are based on grades, that it is possible that a player actually passes the test in Nigeria and a few months later fails the same test at the CAF level based on a few months of maturity. This is used, for instance, to explain why Wilfred Ndidi passed the test in Nigeria for the 2013 squad but failed the same test at CAF level. This has made Nigeria wary, as I understand it, of those who pass the MRI at the grade V level for instance. What we do not know is at what grade level Sanusi passed his test.

Absolutely! I agree with you wholeheartedly.
This is perfectly normal and why I object to calling everyone that "fails" the MRI at that level an "age cheat". At that age bracket (16/17/18yrs old) the bones are still in a natural but final state of growth and one may pass the test today and in 2 months time, the growth plates have fully matured and fused. This is the basis of the grading system. It really is not rocket science. Neither is it a lottery.
What I will never accept is how supposedly 20, 21-year-old men (and even much older) are said to be "passing" the MRI - which suggests the scan is highly inaccurate and ineffective.

It is not a lottery and short of Nigerians having some powerful juju, the only other explanation that makes sense is that there is fraud going on at the local MRI scanning centres.

The ocassional 21 year can indeed pass the scan

[Chief Ogbunigwe]

Damunk,

The point you make above is definitely key. But let me also add that because MRI tests are based on grades, that it is possible that a player actually passes the test in Nigeria and a few months later fails the same test at the CAF level based on a few months of maturity. This is used, for instance, to explain why Wilfred Ndidi passed the test in Nigeria for the 2013 squad but failed the same test at CAF level. This has made Nigeria wary, as I understand it, of those who pass the MRI at the grade V level for instance. What we do not know is at what grade level Sanusi passed his test.

Absolutely! I agree with you wholeheartedly.
This is perfectly normal and why I object to calling everyone that "fails" the MRI at that level an "age cheat". At that age bracket (16/17/18yrs old) the bones are still in a natural but final state of growth and one may pass the test today and in 2 months time, the growth plates have fully matured and fused. This is the basis of the grading system. It really is not rocket science. Neither is it a lottery.
What I will never accept is how supposedly 20, 21-year-old men (and even much older) are said to be "passing" the MRI - which suggests the scan is highly inaccurate and ineffective.

It is not a lottery and short of Nigerians having some powerful juju, the only other explanation that makes sense is that there is fraud going on at the local MRI scanning centres.

The ocassional 21 year can indeed pass the scan

Dont mind DaMunk jare. His fanaticism for Naija footie overshadows his scientific mind. He has refused to accept this since 2009, even after we reviewed the original MRI article. He even wrote the author to explain why there are false negatives

[Damunk]

Damunk,

The point you make above is definitely key. But let me also add that because MRI tests are based on grades, that it is possible that a player actually passes the test in Nigeria and a few months later fails the same test at the CAF level based on a few months of maturity. This is used, for instance, to explain why Wilfred Ndidi passed the test in Nigeria for the 2013 squad but failed the same test at CAF level. This has made Nigeria wary, as I understand it, of those who pass the MRI at the grade V level for instance. What we do not know is at what grade level Sanusi passed his test.

Absolutely! I agree with you wholeheartedly.
This is perfectly normal and why I object to calling everyone that "fails" the MRI at that level an "age cheat". At that age bracket (16/17/18yrs old) the bones are still in a natural but final state of growth and one may pass the test today and in 2 months time, the growth plates have fully matured and fused. This is the basis of the grading system. It really is not rocket science. Neither is it a lottery.
What I will never accept is how supposedly 20, 21-year-old men (and even much older) are said to be "passing" the MRI - which suggests the scan is highly inaccurate and ineffective.

It is not a lottery and short of Nigerians having some powerful juju, the only other explanation that makes sense is that there is fraud going on at the local MRI scanning centres.

The ocassional 21 year can indeed pass the scan

Dont mind DaMunk jare. His fanaticism for Naija footie overshadows his scientific mind. He has refused to accept this since 2009, even after we reviewed the original MRI article. He even wrote the author to explain why there are false negatives

My Chiefs.
I am not contesting the "occasional" false negatives and false positives.

I am firstly questioning the sheer number of older players claiming to have 'passed' the MRI and those reporting the same as if fact. If you dig deeper into our youth football you will hear stories of old men "passing" the MRIs done locally.
Secondly, I am asking how 24-year-olds and even older are allegedly ''passing" it, even if said to be "only occasionally"

The false negatives (ie "passing") are supposed to be within a closed age bracket, not 24, 25-year-olds.
Maybe you guys can explain it in that context.

[Damunk]

Oga Damunk, I hear you, but my question would be how do we know they are 20,21 I’m hoping there’s good reason to assume that is their age and not just hearsay. I just hate forming conclusions off hearsay that’s all. If they are lying at some point they will get caught up in the tangled web and be dealt with that way.

This is my problem too. Short of someone doing a proper undercover investigation there is just no way of getting at the truth. There are far too many wild stories circulating with people providing their own 'evidence' - usually anecdotal - polluting the overall picture.
This is why you find everyone being assumed guilty until proven otherwise.

[Sunset]

http://www.sportflames.com/2019/09/u23- ... t.html?m=1

The 2018/2019 Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) joint top scorer and Eunisell Boot winner was involved in three of the five goals netted by the Imama Amapakabo managed side in Asaba as they qualified for the AFCON 5-1 on aggregate.
He scored one and provided an assist in the game. The Nasarawa United lad was involved in the first goal by Taiwo Awoniyi.

[Sunset]

Continues his scoring form to the CHAN Eagles though we got demolished 4 - 1
[/video]