Proper record keeping, technology will stop age cheat - Akinwunmi

Barr. Akinwunmi

Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi is the first Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF. He spoke with NEW HUNTERS EDITOR, CHRIS ONOKPEGU on what the NFF is doing to stop age cheat amongst other things.

Sir, we want to commend you for the good job you are doing concerning youth development but what are you doing concerning age cheat because investigation has revealed that the last NPFL/La Liga league that just took place was marred by age cheat. Players older than 15 years participated for clubs because they want to win the maiden edition of the tournament.

Thank you for the commendation. I don't want to comment about any particular tournament but at the NFF Youth Committee, we do our utmost to screen the players in our tournaments and check their birth certificates, cross check the answers to specific questions etc. I assure you we are winning the battle but you will agree that it will take time and a lot of mental restructuring in our nation and in our football to totally eradicate the minority who have refused to stop the attempt to cheat. Over the next few years both proper record keeping and technology will help deal with this unpleasant event of cheating

You will agree with me that there are so many talented players in the country, are you working with the coaches to help scout them out from the grassroot?

As you know, Grassroot football is majorly within the purview of the State Football Associations, FA. I can confidently say we at the Lagos FA are doing our utmost and are succeeding because we have a good relationship with our State Coaches Association, I also know that many of my colleagues do the same. However I think that the National Coaches Association needs to do more although I recognise some of their constraints.

If yes, what type of programme is being prepared for the coaches to teach the players and from what age category are you considering for players to be scouted?

We need to get the coaching structure right in Nigeria. First is to understand that Youth Coaching is a socialised field within the sphere of coaching. The second is that we at the State FA’s need to encourage Grassroots coaches within our jurisdiction to come forward for training and probably local certification as a start. We can then take it from there. The NFF will then take it from there. The issue of age at which player should be scouted is a function of the education and training of the Youth Coaches because the younger the players the more at risk they are with untrained coaches.

So many football academies are scattered across the country, do the NFF know them and their programmes (what they teach the kids) or the age categories of the players in these academies because so many of them have old players in their fold?

The NFF does not know all the academies nor can it know them. A few years ago, requirements for registration of Academies were set but it has not worked. In my opinion we should encourage the ones who meet the criteria with incentive enough for the others to want to register. This is cheaper and will certainly be more effective than trying to shut down those who don't register. If for example we rule that only players from recognised tournaments and recognised academies will be eligible to play for our youth teams, there will be a clamour to register I'm sure. Also if we have an Academies tournament with prize money you will find many academies coming out of the woodwork to register.

Facilities are one of the major problems hindering the discovery of talented players in the country, what is the NFF doing to help out?

The NFF is somewhat handicapped in that area as it not in charge of facilities in the various States and by virtue of the Land Use Act, ownership of land resides in the individual State Governors.

So many young Nigerian players outside the country are playing for other countries, do you have what it takes to monitor them and what have you put in place to encourage them to play for their fatherland?

This particular NFF has been doing a lot in this regard and it's already yielding results, Leon Balogun and Troost-Ekong are already stalwarts in the heart of our defence and there are many more coming but they must compete with our locally grown players.

Unlike their male counterparts, there are no female academies in the country, what are you doing to encourage people to go into that or better still take the game to the secondary schools where the likes of Ann Chiejine and others were discovered?

Again a lot of that work is to be done by the State FA’s, at the NFF we are trying hard to support the improvement of the Female league so that the young Female footballers can have genuine aspirations. Also we intend this year to also have the National U15 Tournament incorporation with the girls as well as the boys.

You have trained so many coaches in CAF courses, but many of them who are supposed to handle grassroot players are handling bigger teams while majority of them concentrate on male players, what are you doing to encourage them to manage their female counterparts?

When the Female football grows to where it should be, there will be a natural gravitation in that direction.

Well done sir for bringing another Clemens Westerhof in the person of Gernot Rohr, you gave the coach a condition to qualify the Super Eagles for the world cup or get sacked, how true is this?

I am not aware of such condition but that certainly is our (and his) target.

If it is true, why are you not considering building a team for the future or is it because we did not qualify for past tournaments?

We are. Look at the average age of the Super Eagles today.

Congratulations for the new deals you just signed. Now that we have a new sponsor, are you going to be paying players, coaches and officials immediately after every match or is it still going to be the usual way of putting their pay together before making payment?

Players, coaches and officials will be paid as agreed.

Lastly, we don’t have archive of players that have played for the national teams in the past, what is the NFF doing to ensure that the upcoming players or generation get to know these players? Some countries and clubs have libraries where these are stored in form of printed magazine, video cds, etc. Do you have such plans?

Yes we recognise the importance of these and yes we do have such plans. We already document more than was done in the past but a lot more needs to be done.