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We need to fight age cheating in our football – Emmanuel Babayaro

Cheating in age grade competitions has been one of the biggest challenges, facing Nigerian football. How do we get out of this problem? This was one of the questions we asked Emmanuel Babayaro, former Nigerian goalkeeper. Babayaro himself played for Golden Eaglets and the nation’s Dream Team 1 that won Olympics soccer gold in Atlanta 96. Did he (Babayaro) also cheat as an Eaglet? His response in this concluding part of the interview he granted The Nigerian Xpress Sports Editor, George Aluo, would shock you.

 

 

➤ Continued From last week

Let’s talk about Eagles and the AFCON campaign. Do you see us winning in Egypt?

Nigeria should not be talking about whether we can win AFCON at the level our football has gotten to. By now, we should be talking about whether we can win the World Cup and not AFCON. That we are still struggling even here in Africa is because of the lapses in the way we run the game. There have been lapses…Why don’t we ever sit down and put the right things in place and correct these lapses.

Don’t forget, we went for the Olympics in 1996 and won the Olympics soccer gold. When we returned, that team got disbanded. On the other hand, the country that finished third at the Olympics went with that same team to the World Cup in 1998 and won the World Cup.

So, you can see there is no continuity in our football. We don’t draw up long term plans…We cut corners, cheat at the age grade level and win under this, under that…Are you laughing, Mr. George? A lot of things are wrong with the Nigerian system…A lot of things are wrong… When are we going to start doing the right thing? This is where I want people like you to come up with the way forward. If we do, we should be talking about winning the World Cup and not AFCON.

You are a product of age grade football…You mean we cheat at that level?

Don’t we? Don’t you know that? Don’t I know that? Let’s say the truth here. We cheat at that level and it is taking its toll on Nigerian football. And you journalists are part of the problem. Nigeria wins U17 and you celebrate it as if we won the World Cup. In other climes, such victory would only be tucked away in one corner of a newspaper because U17 is only a developmental thing.

How can we solve the age cheating problem?

It is for us to be honest with ourselves. We have to come up with a policy and honest will to solve the problem. It is not a problem MRI can solve. You can see that a 27-year-old man can pass U17 MRI test while a player who is just 18 will fail the test. The reason the Oyibos don’t cheat is because they start early. They have good academies and people invest in these academies. Parents take their kids to the academies and begin to hone the skills of their children early. Messi was discovered at 10.

My brother, Celestine, has a son who, at 10, is already doing well with Newcastle’s academy. But here, we run academies that have no structure…academies that are only academies on paper. There are no policies that help to build solid academies. This is where again the NFF comes in. They should ensure we run real soccer academies and not all manner of people coming up with rubbish in the name of academy.

Our league, for instance, must not have 20 teams. If it is only five or six teams that meet the guidelines for premiership, with one of such conditions being having a solid youth team, why not? We should be thinking quality and not quantity. Overtime, other teams would meet the criteria. That is the way to grow.

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Let’s come to your person. Did you play with your right age at the U17?

Do you want me to be honest with you? Nigerians don’t like honesty. I would answer a yes and a no and I will explain. And I would say yes and explain. I was the exact age of 17 when I played U17. I must confess to you that I almost did not want to play because I was already 17 and I felt I was cheating. I would never forget; it was my godfather, who convinced me to go and play. He told me I wasn’t cheating since I was not above 17 but the exact age. I argued that but this is a competition for U17, the word is under 17…the word is not 17. At the point of the World Cup, I would be exceeding the age. You know what my godfather said to me?

He said no, Emman, people who are at the helm of affairs know the right thing and moreover you are a goalkeeper and not an out field player. And in every tournament a goalkeeper is allowed a little bit of excess in terms of age, height and size…stuff like that. He said I shouldn’t bother, that is what gave me the confidence to play. But one million per cent, Celestine, my brother, played as an under age because he is my direct younger brother. He is my blood, same father, same mother. You understand what I’m saying and our mates who were in school can attest to this. Both Celestine and myself were still in school when we played for Golden Eaglets. We were at Sardauna Memorial College, Kaduna.

The NFF recently said they wouldn’t be paying age grade teams. Do you support that?

Fantastic idea. This is one policy that Amaju has come up with that I have applauded. It is a good policy that would even discourage a 30-year-old man from struggling to be in Golden Eaglets. One thing making people to cheat at that level is because of money. If the NFF sticks to the policy of not paying the age grade teams, it would help us a lot. The NFF should not allow itself to be blackmailed into reverting it, as some people are pressuring them to do. Amaju deserves thumbs up for coming up with that policy. This is the kind of perfect honest will we need to turn things around.

Finally, what is Emma doing in Owerri at the moment?

Emmanuel is a public servant right now in Imo State. I work here as a Special Assistant to Imo State Governor and I’m also the coordinator of NEPAD in the state. I’m also the chairman of the Task Force on Urban Renewal in New Owerri.

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