A staggering 26 members of Nigeria's Under-17 side failed an age test

Former Nigerian FA president Anthony Kojo Williams told the BBC: "We use over-age players for junior championships, I know that.
"Why not say it? It's the truth. We always cheat. It's a fact.
"When you cheat, you deprive the young stars that are supposed to play in these competitions their rights."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/36990537/nigerias-under-17-squad-wiped-out-as-half-are-older-than-17

The older article linked in the above is telling, too:
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/26174252

"It is quite common, in certain cases, when you ask a player about his age, he will ask if you are asking about his football age or his actual age."

(click to enlarge)

Well, we had this thread before: http://www.goallegacy.net/t34807-i-am-17-i-can-confirm

Looks like after two years, the time of the other thread, the Nigerians are still at it then.

They are not alone though… Different countries, different cheats: http://www.goallegacy.net/t34799-four-players-on-irans-womens-national-team-found-guilty-of-being-men

It's really happening.

He said: "In Africa, many people don't know when they were born. Sometimes they guess. It is true we have problems in Africa, that is why we have a doubt about it, whether it is genuine cheating or not."

You can't be serious.

Nishankly wrote:

He said: "In Africa, many people don't know when they were born. Sometimes they guess. It is true we have problems in Africa, that is why we have a doubt about it, whether it is genuine cheating or not."

You can't be serious.

Well, nowadays I think it isn't like this anymore. But regarding the early/middle 90's, I can imagine that.

Drogba was 47 when he won UCL in 2012.

Drogba 51 today playing in MLS? LOL

Some say he is only 49.

Nigeria young teams are quite good but you never heard about those young players again for that reason. It's changing however, less people are cheating .

The article seems to indicate that more are cheating. 26 overage on the U17 seems to be a record of sorts.

It might occur more often in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole it's not. Anyways you can't cheat your way out in sport. It's just hurting the youth sadly.

LeBéninois wrote:It might occur more often in Nigeria but in Africa as a whole it's not. Anyways you can't cheat your way out in sport. It's just hurting the youth sadly.

Nigeria is and has always been the biggest problem doing this I think. At least successfully. It's ridiculous to think they've got that many tournament wins in youth championships but they get killed every time in senior competition.

Yeah Can you believe Obafemi Martins is still 31 today ? Which means that during his Inter day he was 18-22.

LeBéninois wrote:Yeah Can you believe Obafemi Martins is still 31 today ? Which means that during his Inter day he was 18-22.

31 is crazy for him. He started declining at 24 or something. Same with Kanu also.

Everyone including Arsene hinted at Kanu's age being false. That wasn't even a hidden thing lol. It wasn't that Kanu hid his age, just that his birth certificate had it wrong.

RealGunner wrote:Everyone including Arsene hinted at Kanu's age being false. That wasn't even a hidden thing lol. It wasn't that Kanu hid his age, just that his birth certificate had it wrong.

Yeah, it's a truth at this point, never heard anyone say otherwise except Farfan probably.

His age on wiki right now is 57

It's not only Africans you know, South Americans also do this

EL Patron wrote:It's not only Africans you know, South Americans also do this

What? Who? And even if you can produce 1 or 2 names of instances where people lied about their ages, it's hardly a common practice besides hypothetical few bad actors.

You know, South America is somewhat on par at the very least to your Eastern European block and surely with some top Western European countries, development wise (apart from one very apparent  anomaly And even then, I can tell you 95% of births are registered from day 1. It's just beneficiary to your child in all ways).

It's extremely natural to register your child on the very day he's born. False birth certificates are pretty much non-existent. There's not social benefits from lying about it, apart from it just being a bad omen. If you're poor, you're poor.

Falcao, Costa, Samuel Galindo, Luciano (Chievo verona) and Inter. If they have done it then some others have probably done it as well. This has nothing to do with South America being developed, it's all about a group of people willing to do anything to fulfil their dream

Reminds me of this Lazio lad from Cameroon, who was officially 17 but looked like a grown man in his forties lmao

There are 3 cases of age fraud regarding youth tournaments involving Latin Americans. The main one was one instance regarding Mexico. Big difference.