Oluwamayomikun Orekoya
Minister of Youth and Sports Development in Nigeria, Sunday Dare, has said that his ministry would work with the Nigeria Football Federation to review remunerations for the national youth football teams.
Dare was miffed about the free-fall of age-grade teams under the current dispensation even more so after the Ladan Bosso-led Flying Eagles crashed out of the U-20 AFCON qualifiers WAFU B in Benin Republic last week.
The Flying Eagles will miss out on next year’s U-20 African Cup of Nations in Mauritania and the 2021 U-20 World Cup in Indonesia.
Speaking in Lagos on the margins of his inspection visit at the National Stadium in Surulere on the on-going renovation of the main bowl, Dare noted with emphasis that the ministry would review remunerations for the junior teams.
“We are going to work with the NFF to do a review of the age grade competitions,” declared Dare, `”We would also work with them to review the lack of remunerations as it is because I think it is important; we have seen what has happened to the U-20 side (Flying Eagles), the U17 (Golden Eaglets) starts in January.
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“We are going to do a total review and we hope we can return to the regime where we pay good attention to their welfare.
“We need to fix a few things and we are going to have that crucial conversation.”
Dare said that the ministry would also tackle age cheating in the junior teams, adding that age fraud is as bad as doping and the ministry would not tolerate it anymore.
He said: “Beyond that we are going to look at the question of age cheating which is a problem; some information has come to me from the media about the MRI which is coming back.
“Age cheating is as bad as doping. Both ruin any sport and we are going to pay very close attention to these vices,” he noted.
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