The camp of Nigeria’s Under 23 football team has debunked reports doing the rounds that some players have been decamped because of age discrepancies.
The Nigerian squad, neck deep in preparation in Ibadan, Oyo State will face Tanzania this weekend in the 1st leg CAF U23 AFCON 2023 qualifier in Dar es Salaam, with the second leg on 29 October at the Lekan Salami stadium, Adamasingba.
The team’s preparations were called into question following today’s reports that majority of the invited players has been told to vacate the camp because ages on their passports don’t correlate with their ages on FIFA Transfer Matching System, TMS.
According to the team’s media officer Sharif Abdalah the squad has been split into two by chief coach Salisu Yusuf to accommodate upcoming commitments.
Coach Yusuf who doubles as coach of the Super Eagles B team had selected some of the invited players to prepare for next month’s international friendly between Nigeria’s home based players and Costa Rica.
The second part of the squad which will be beefed up with foreign based players will continue preparations for the the 2023 Under 23 AFCON qualifiers against Tanzania.
The Nigerian squad will jet out for Tanzania on Thursday.
The CAF U23 AFCON tournament in Morocco will serve as a qualifier for the 2024 men’s Olympic football tournament.
