Former Super Eagles winger, Emmanuel Amuneke has advocated tighter restrictions on the acquisition of international passports for under-aged Nigerian footballers.
The 1994 Africa Footballer of the Year, who is now head coach of Tanzania’s senior national team said such restrictions would help Nigeria in the battle against age-cheats in the round leather game.
Sports247.ng can report that Amuneke is still haunted by the situation he faced as coach of Nigeria’s under-17 national team, Golden Eaglets from 2014-2015, when several players who wanted to play for the side were found to be in possession of many passports with different ages.
The former Zamalek of Egypt, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal and Barcelona of Spain star, recalled further that he was as accused by several players and their representatives of victimisation.
He said some even alleged he was indulging in fraud, but he insists many of them were dropped because they were either above the age limit or had date of birth irregularities in their passports.
Amunke recounted: “I know what I experienced when I was coaching in the under-17 national team.
“Most of these players had five passports. When you tell a player to go and do his passport, he doesn’t return because he has a lot of them.
“People around them will not educate them because they’re only looking at the money aspect, they’re not being truthful to them.”
