Akpoborie talks about age cheating

[KoC]

This is from a steaming debate on his Facebook status page:

"@everybody, this is just something i wrote yes to make fun of the just concluded elections. anyways, i have listened to all of you abusive and all but nobody has actually given me the main problem here.
i will tell you guys a story. i went to get a nigerian visa for a friend in london and when i got to the embassy, the lady at the counter was over 50 years and when i asked her how long she has been at the embassy, she told me since 1968, guys that was the year i was born. please tell me all those people that graduated from school from that time in the same field , please where will they work. oh they are still waiting for this woman to retire to get a job at the counter.
now one very serious problem in african and our football, is this age competitions. since we won the maiden tournament of the u17 everybody wants to win at all cost. to be fair its not just nigeria.
at all cost means playing over aged players. and trust me over aged means over aged, guys you know how we are in nija.
that alone is killing our game badly. football is practice and in this tournaments we expose the wrong people and by the time they should be ready for the main super eagles, they are grandfathers already. i will use myself as an example because i dont want to embarrass anybody. after the world cup in china i played the under 20 in chile and on to the super eagles, that is from 1985, i played till 2002 and if it were not for injury i would have played till 2006 or 7. now please tell me apart from kanu which of these other guys that won that same tournament that has played more than five years.
this problem is not just in nigeria but i think we are big enough to take care of it now. look at germany, they had the same problem of breeding players and they set the rule to lure more young players into the game and they succeeded now that plan was set on motion in 2001 , have you seen the germans play lately?.
my friends amasemeka accused a player during the last concluded under 17 world cup and nigerians nearly killed him. but brothers he was saying the truth. i remember during our time sabara invited peter nieketen and he refused because he was too old for the team.
remember this saying, you can not teach an old dog new tricks. that is so true. again i might be wrong, but i believe that most of the players that debut for nigeria recently are over 27 or 28. like i said i might be wrong, but i strongly believe i am right, so tell me when they will now mature in the team, when they are starting to play at 28. and i am talking about the very young ones.
let me also tell you that i play on sundays with a friend who told me he was in the under 17 team two sets after me. and at that time he was close to 30. so please what are we saying here.
i dont even want to go into the league issues at all because its appalling.

[Metho scorpion]

...why not let it remain on Face Book for God's sake...? Koc your age issue is becoming something else...

[Bigpokey24]

colin u are wrong on this one ... where are the facts ? that is what is killing Nigeria, jungle justice no proof , but by hear say hear say...

[The Notorious B!GGESTMAN]

the guy's English is terrible!

[Obinna]

Oga KOC.. where U dey self.. ") i hear what akpoborie is saying..

[Bigpokey24]

wasnt it the same Akpoborie who was banned from Germany due to some child trafficking?

[marko]

His English might be terrible but i can understand where he is coming from, age cheating has killed Nigerian football, i fully agree with him, too many cheats in the game, you want proof, like he said, how many of these guys are still around after 5 years, he pointed out, they debut for the under 17s when they are in fact in their late 20s, by the time they join the super eagles, Nigerian spectatators wander why they cant run for 30 minutes without asking for water on the touchline!!!

[fabio]

People don't want to hear or believe the truth. Two ex-international has spoken about the cancer in our football yet from the responses above they are condemned.

[The Notorious B!GGESTMAN]

People don't want to hear or believe the truth. Two ex-international has spoken about the cancer in our football yet from the responses above they are condemned.

but we know about the age cheating already! I mean look at Stanely Okoro for god sake- does he really expect us to believe he is 17/18 when he looks 30?

[General Trousers]

I don't remember a full time Nigerian Journalist ever outing a player for being overage in the news (CE does not count) ...


x

[megapro]

His English might be terrible but i can understand where he is coming from, age cheating has killed Nigerian football, i fully agree with him, too many cheats in the game, you want proof, like he said, how many of these guys are still around after 5 years, he pointed out, they debut for the under 17s when they are in fact in their late 20s, by the time they join the super eagles, Nigerian spectatators wander why they cant run for 30 minutes without asking for water on the touchline!!!

from our 56 world champions (All U17), those playing for the SE after 5 years after the U17wc are:
Kanu Nwankwo 17 years
Jonathan Akpoborie 16 years
Wilson Oruma 13 years
Celestine Babayaro 11 years
Nduka Ugbade 10 years
Taribe Ojigwe 9 years
Mobi Oparaku 5 years

others

Haruna Lukman 3 years

[marko]

Just the token players, people like Kanu relied so much on his football intelligence rather than his pace, thats why he can still play at the top level eventhough he has no legs, other players in his category are the likes of Scholes, Giggs, Sheringham, who continued to play way past their 34 birthdays due to the same reason i pointed out, these days European teams hardly touch Nigerian players, especially the top ones for the same reason, age cheating problem is a hard issue to resolve

[Waffiman]

Oga Chief, thanks for sharing. What is sad is many here still want to be like the proverbial ostrich, burying their heads in the sand.

[Waffiman]

People don't want to hear or believe the truth. Two ex-international has spoken about the cancer in our football yet from the responses above they are condemned.

Sad and pathetic.

[marko]

The truth is hard for many Nigerians to take in, this age factor continues to be ignored, the current world cup just proved once again, the players are way past it, the likes of Afolabi, i have never watched a Nigerian player perform so badly, these guys are at the wrong side of 30, they cant deceive me!! an ex-international claimed a player clearly lied about his age, think it was the Under 17s captain, the man was abused all over the Nigerian press, i thought the player in question should have sued him for libel, he clearly did not because there was an element of truth

[Cmoke]

KOC no know say nobody for AJ respect Akpoborie. My boys say him hand too tight.

Cmoke

[marko]

These age cheats need to be exposed everywhere we see them

[aruako1]

Oga Chief, thanks for sharing. What is sad is many here still want to be like the proverbial ostrich, burying their heads in the sand.

When people ask for proof it is not that they do not acknowledge that there is no age cheating. Heck I know there is age cheating. However you cannot out these age cheats without coming up with incontrovertible evidence. If this is not done even the few that did not cheat are tarred once somebody comes to accuse them. For instance, Akpoborie claims he was born in 1968. Will it be fair for somebody to claim that he was born in 1962 without proving it? The only way we can tackle it is to get the actual proof on each individual culprit rather than engage in speculation. Even in America authorities obtained full proof that Little League baseball star Danny Almonte had cheated before they took action by going to conduct investigations at the Dominican republic. My position is, and I believe many guys who ask for proof hold this view as well: I KNOW THAT THERE IS MASSIVE CHEATING BUT I WILL NOT ACCUSE ANY PARTICULAR PLAYER BASED ON SPECULATION. People who accuse should do what Adokiye did with Fortune Chukwudi (we know the useless NFF did not take any action but I am convinced that Chukwudi cheated).

[marko]

Oga Chief, thanks for sharing. What is sad is many here still want to be like the proverbial ostrich, burying their heads in the sand.

When people ask for proof it is not that they do not acknowledge that there is no age cheating. Heck I know there is age cheating. However you cannot out these age cheats without coming up with incontrovertible evidence. If this is not done even the few that did not cheat are tarred once somebody comes to accuse them. For instance, Akpoborie claims he was born in 1968. Will it be fair for somebody to claim that he was born in 1962 without proving it? The only way we can tackle it is to get the actual proof on each individual culprit rather than engage in speculation. Even in America authorities obtained full proof that Little League baseball star Danny Almonte had cheated before they took action by going to conduct investigations at the Dominican republic. My position is, and I believe many guys who ask for proof hold this view as well: I KNOW THAT THERE IS MASSIVE CHEATING BUT I WILL NOT ACCUSE ANY PARTICULAR PLAYER BASED ON SPECULATION. People who accuse should do what Adokiye did with Fortune Chukwudi (we know the useless NFF did not take any action but I am convinced that Chukwudi cheated).

As they say, the proof is in the pudding, watching the SE at the world cup, it was pretty obvious many player are way past it, its hard to prove a crime in Nigeria, not just age cheating but most crimes because of the corrupt and inefficient judicial system, how will you investigate when the NFF and some football agents are at the heart of these age cheats scam, most of these players get discovered late in their career, some use the under 17 route, by this time, they are already in their 20s, by the time they get promoted to the super eagles, most are way past it, i still insist if the under 17s are good enough, they should be promoted directly to the senior team, let Nigeria use them at their peak before they get burnt out!!

[zee]

wasnt it the same Akpoborie who was banned from Germany due to some child trafficking?

Akpoborie is saying the 'gospel' truth.
Take it or leave it.

[hurricaneeddy]

when i made the comment "so age cheating failed" i was called names on this site just a few days back.we know what happens out here.very easy to arrange birth certificate.just walk into the local govt with 500 naira.you can try it.in fact the main criteria is the height.when you look too tall then you are disqualified.

[folem]

Those that didn't win U-17 World Cup

Benedict AKWUEGBU 16 years
Rabiu Afolabi 13 years
Chidi ODIAH 11 years
Greg ETAFIA 10 years
Godwin OKPARA 9 years
Akpan BASSEY 9 years
Ifeanyi UDEZE 8 years
Joseph ENAKARHIRE 7 years
James OBIORAH 7 years
Richard EROMOIGBE 7 years
Mikel OBI 7 years
Chinedu OGBUKE 7 years
Solomon OKORONKWO 7 years
Uwa ECHIEJILE 5 years

It is ironic that Jonathan can allude to Adokie's 2007 U-17 set expose but forgets the same was said about 1985 set Duere Tenworinmi by Adokie.

[papilo]

wasnt it the same Akpoborie who was banned from Germany due to some child trafficking?

This is uncalled for. What does this have to do with anything?