Combating age-cheats: NFF should reintroduce Lulu’s U-13 championship
By; Jacob Onjewu Dickson
To lay to rest the raging controversy of age-cheats in Nigerian football, an experienced administrator, Bamidele Ofuyah has suggested that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should go back to reintroduce the U-13 championship that was introduced by former NFA President, Alhaji Sani Lulu.
He sad though it is a good thing that Nigeria won the U-17 World Cup in Chile, controversies of age-cheats accusations that trailed the win would be avoided in the future if we went back to the organizing the U-13 championship.
“If the NFF had continued with the U-13 championship introduced by Sani Lulu, it would have been a sure way of discovering lots of talents. When it was on, lots of talents, including Kelechi Iheanacho were discovered from there,” he said.
He explained that Sani Lulu while NFF President, had good policies because he grew from the ranks before he became an administrator.
“I coached Sani Lulu when he was a player between 1982 and 1984 when he was a youths Corps Member posted to FCDA. He grew from the ranks as a player then a very good mid fielder before becoming an administrator and then FCT Director of Sports, before emerging as the NFA President.
“The experience he garnered helped in ensuring he came up with ideas that would have been the best for Nigeria if nor jettisoned,” Ofuyah who is the Coach of Nationwide Division 1 team, JZ United added.
