Tag: Nigeria

Nigeria U17 coach hits back at Iran age-cheating claim

By Oluwashina Okeleji BBC Sport, Lagos

Nigeria Under-17 coach Manu Garba has dismissed Iran’s accusation of age-cheating in the 4-1 defeat by the Golden Eaglets at the Fifa Under-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Three-time champions Nigeria were too hot for Iran at the Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain racking up three goals in the first half en route to a 4-1 win against the Asian side in the Round of 16. Afterwards Iranian coach Ali Doustimehr questioned the ages of some of the players representing the west African country.

But Garba told BBC Sport: “I personally feel it is just something that is borne out of frustration at losing to a tactically and technically better side. “All the players we have here passed the MRI test and we even conducted another round one month before we came to the UAE. “We would probably take it up with the Iranian coach at Fifa level for casting aspersion on the eligibility of our players.”

Back in August, Nigeria dropped key players for the tournament after wrist scans showed them to be over the age limit. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) was used to scan the wrist plate of players to accurately ascertain their true age, with only players between grade 1 and 5 of the scan eligible to participate. Meanwhile, Nigeria and Ivory Coast are the only African teams to have progressed to the quarter-finals in the UAE.

While the Young Elephants narrowly edged past continental rivals Morocco 2-1, Nigeria highlighted their title credentials with that crushing victory over Iran, bringing their goals-for tally to 18 after four games.

Ivory Coast will face Argentina in the last eight on Saturday, while Nigeria are sweating on the fitness of leading scorer Kelechi Iheanacho for their tie against Uruguay on the same day. Iheanacho has scored five goals in the competition and coach Manu Garba has assured the striker will be available for the Uruguay test. “It is a minor injury and Iheanacho should be back for the next game,” the coach said.

Nigeria have now reached at least the quarter-finals at nine of the ten U-17 World Cups they have participated in. The only time the Golden Eaglets failed to do so was at Finland 2003, when they were packing for home after the group stage.

Mahdavikia: “the Nigerians were tremendous, Our team was shocked.”

Iran nigeria FIFA U-17

 

Mehdi Mahdavikia said the Nigerian team was tremendous  while our team was shocked in matter of few minutes .

After the crushing 4-1 defeat of Iran’s U-17 team in the FIFA U17 World Cup by Nigeria . Mahdavikia who was accompanying the team as an advisor admitted that the African team was way stronger than Iran. “in matter of minutes, the way the Nigerians played made our team fell apart. Nigeria had a very strong team. Their No. 11 player managed to run havoc on our defenses, and we had no answer for that. They were very professional and it was a deserving victory for the better team.” Mahdavikia said.

“Our players were not successful in playing a neat passing game and many of their passes fell short or intercepted by the opponents who created swift counterattacks and scored goals. Our players fell victim to their inexperience. We should accept that our opponents played much better than us. Their Height and figures looked like players above 17 years category .”

The former Captain of Team Melli : “I played soccer for many years but I do not know how can some of these Nigerian players can be less than 17 years !. There are a number of crucial factors at this level of football; stress and lack of experience are at the top. In this level, the young age and lack of experience sometimes makes it difficult for players to make the right decisions in time-critical situations.”

Mahdavikia in an interview with ISNA said that “the fact that the players reached the World Cup and qualified from group stage is in itself an achievement that we need to commend them and the coaching staff.  I believe congratulation is due. We need to face reality, our young players do not have a lot to offer and that is probably the most they could achieve at world level. Football in Iran does not pay much attention to the grassroots. Considering this, Doustimeher , his coaching team and his colleagues  did a marvelous and commending job creating this team in such adverse situations , to build a team to the World Cup after hard work lasting for three years “.

“After long consideration, I don’t think that Team Melli U-17 performed badly. We qualified from the group stage but faced a team like Nigeria which has the potential to reach the final. I believe that our team created an achievement under these circumstances. We tried our best to qualify but faced a strong team that we could not beat. Hopefully in the future our grassroots football is taken more seriously so that we can build better national teams. Again though, I believe that the work of the coaching staff to reach that far in the World Cup was a masterwork.”
Iran was eleimnated from the FIFA U17 World Cup in the 1/16 round by losing to Nigeria 4-1 in Al Ain.