Imama Amapakabo has expressed his frustrations at the age scandal which has seen him drop players he has been training with ahead of the Nigeria U23 game against Libya on Wednesday, Owngoalnigeria.com reports.
The coach as exclusively reported by this portal has dropped players invited from the Nigeria Professional Football League ( NPFL) due to documentation issues with most of them having disparities in their date of birth.
A total of nine players who were expected to be key members of his squad have been sent home from the team camp in Abuja leaving the coach with a lot to do ahead of the first leg of their Africa U23 Cup of Nations tie in Tunisia.
Most of the players who were dropped have worked with the coach for a week and some even more before it was discovered that their documentation has issues regarding to uniformity in their date of birth on official documents checked by the handlers of the team.
“We are still having problems with age restrictions”, the coach told Brila FM.
“That has caused us to keep changing the team. A lot of players have age discrepancies.
“When you try to reconcile their age with what is on the passport, there is no uniformity in data.
“We have to look at players that came through the ranks to see how to put a team together.
“By the time the whole players from abroad arrive, we will have a clearer picture of our squad and, in the end, we should be able to put together a solid team.”
Osas Mahawi
