U20 Afcon: Mutiu Adepoju slams Egyptian coach over age falsification accusation

Former NFF Technical Committee member, Mutiu Adepoju has slammed former Egypt national team coach Ehab Galal for accusing Nigeria U20 team of age falsification at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations.

The Egyptian had accused Nigeria and Senegal of fielding overage players following the hosts’ elimination at the expense of the West Africans, singling out Nigeria’s Solomon Agbalaka and Senegal’s Landing Badji.

However, the former Nigeria international and LaLiga ambassador in his defense, insists that age cheating is a continental crisis as “corruption” in African football encourages the unfortunate act.

“It’s a problem of the system right from the beginning,” Adepoju told FL.

“Talking about the Egyptian that protested, how did he know? Was he there when the guys were born? Well, the issue now is how to combat all this. We have to be truthful with ourselves and the system in Nigeria.

“The government has to work, so as to make it difficult for people to cheat the system by falsifying their age.”

Galal is not the only one to point this out as Ugandan coach Jackson Mayanja also accused the Nigeria team if age cheating after losing 1-0 in the quarterfinal to the WAFU-B champions.