There is no proof that any of these players in question have changed their ages but I still find it sad for the players involved who have to play their careers under a shadow of whispers about their honesty with no further way to prove, once and for all, their real age. Another situation where the vast amounts of money in the world game has led to unscrupulous characters bringing their corrupt ways into football but the game can’t counter them due to lack of investment in the poorer of our football associations.

This was some of the information displayed on that sorry site.

NAME: VINCENT ENYEAMA
DATE OF BIRTH: 29/09/82
POSITION: GOAL KEEPER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS KENYA. 04/09/82

He made his debut before he was born??
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NAME: ODEMWINGIE OSAZE
DATE OF BIRTH: 15/07/81
POSITION: MIDFIELDER
DEBUT: WORLDCUP

This man has never been to the world cup!
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NAME: OBAFEMI MARTINS
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/05/78
POSITION: FORWARD
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS IRELAND

NAME: GARBA LAWAL
DATE OF BIRTH: 01/05/78
POSITION: DEFENDER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS ZAMB. 13/01/01

Two SE players with the very SAME date of birth??

BTW, Garbal Lawal was actually born in 1974 (as his passport says). So if this information is correct, does that mean the deliberately inflated his age??

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NAME: SEYI OLOFINJANA
DATE OF BIRTH: 15/11/1982
POSITION: MIDFIELDER
NIGERIA DEBUT: NIG VS MALAWI 12/6/80

Another player making his debut before he was born!
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You can see from the information above that the NFA site is completely discredited and not even worth a mention as regards to Martins? age.

Regarding general age cheating from Africa. This is caused by desperation and poverty in Africa. Some reduce their age so they could get into youth teams and gain recognition. Others are influenced by unscrupulous and fraudulent football agents who advice them to reduce their age by so much that it looks ridicules sometimes. Some of the players claiming to be 16 look at least 25! So it seems like a mixture of ignorance and stupidity on the part of the uneducated players and pure greed on the part of the agents in making these kind of ridiculous age adjustments.

It is a scourge that we are now battling hard in Nigeria. Of recent I think the unscrupulous and greedy football AGENTS are not helping matters. They find out how they system works in Europe (and the loopholes) then advice their clients to reduce their ages so as to get lucrative contracts in which the agent makes a massive cut from.

People can acquire passports and false documentation easily so it is not easy on the African FAs too to combat it. For example the Nigerian FA would have to go by the documentation they are presented with, but they check the documents against past records for the player i.e. in clubs or other youth teams. If there are any inconsistencies regarding his age, the player is dropped from the youth team. Carrying out an in-depth investigation on every potential international player would not be feasible because it would be extremely expensive and time consuming, and if you do it for one player you?ll have to do it for all. Nigeria and other poor African countries cannot afford that kind of expense as many of the players may not even make the final cut to play internationally for the country.

As for international football agents collaborating with players to adjust their age to get lucrative contracts abroad there is little our local FAs can do about that.

What I would welcome is new, cheap and non-intrusive technology that can be used to determine the age of players. If such was to be developed then even poor African nations can afford to buy it and screen players before youth competitions. European clubs could use it to screen players as part of the medical before offering a contract. If such a device was to become formally accepted and mandatory in age testing, the problem would disappear very quickly.

On Kanu, it is obvious he is not 40. Some people claimed Okocha was in his late 30’s as long as 5 years ago, if thats the case i’ll have some of what he is eating because he went to the African Championships in 2004 and dominated as a supposedly 45year old. I totally agree that these rumours are embarassing but frankly the only proof the players have are their passports, if thats not good enough then its up to the clubs as employers to move on and sign other players…simple as that.

I’ve seen Freddy Adu play and while he’s great in front of the cameras doing ball tricks I just haven’t seen the same level of performance on the pitch during a competitive game and that’s in the more relaxed environment of the MLS. Maybe I’m wrong but it wouldn’t be the first time a certain sportswear company has used their financial might to force a national side to play one of their big sponsored players. I would mention the 1998 World Cup Final and a certain toothy South American but I haven’t got my legal advisor sitting beside me tonight to confirm my allegations are printable.

At the time I felt quite smug about this, the manner in which Everton were run back them showed ineptitude from top-to-bottom, and I thought this was a side-effect of that. Clearly the problem runs much deeper, and with more African footballers playing for the biggest clubs across Europe it seems only a matter of time before Liverpool are caught out (or have they been already with Titi Camara?).

As for Freddy Adu, the main reason I want somebody to prove him to be older than claimed, is that, as seems likely, if he is selected for the US next summer, he will surpass Norman Whiteside?s record as the youngest player to have played at a World Cup! I?ve grown quite attached to that Northern Ireland record