Uchechukwu Ugwu, Collins Edwin chief Coach has dabbled into the ongoing chaotic atmosphere in the Nigeria U-17 set up following an early Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) exit in Algeria and failure to secure for the World Cup.
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Nigeria lost 2-1 to Burkina Faso in the quarter finals stage with the defeat meaning that Nigeria will pack their luggages out of the competition and no chance for a FIFA U-17 World Cup games participation much to the displeasure of fans and the Nigeria football federation.
Many sports administrators, stakeholders has intervened in the failures of the national team at all levels both in the male and female category in recent times with the latest piece of insight coming from Uchechukwu in an exclusive interview with Sports247.ng.
“What we need to do is to actually focus on the scouting, for me, this idea of having the scouting in Abuja or any other center, bringing 7,000 players and then using two months plus to scouts when the competition is in three months with just two weeks to train the players, no international exposure, this things will always happens”
“You can have a regional scouting arrangement in all the regions and then you bring them to the center, by now, we should have a team that will represent us next year in the U-17 in camp playing, this kangaroo arrangement can not help us because other teams are developing, look at Senegal, Mali and others.
“One of those boys that I know is playing in Russia for Vista and he’s not even a regular in his club and that’s why he was released to come and play, we need to really look at this our selection system, it’s outdated if you ask me.”
“If we want to talk about corruption, I think somehow, you have to mention agents and scouts because ethics here is just another word for nothing. Most agents today have affiliation with clubs and it’s not supposed to be like that.”
“How many club in the grassroot have money to go and bribe agents, so who influences this corruption, I am not indicting anyone but what I’m saying is that all the stakeholders should be blamed,” Uchechukwu stated.
“In Brazil, you will look at the standard they have set for themselves, even Neymar isn’t considered a legend in Brazil because he has not attained even the level of Ronaldo Delima not to talk of Pele and other greats they gave produced.”
“The purview is that they have won the World Cup five times, so you can’t tell me that there’s a best team, a team that didn’t qualify for the World Cup is the best selected players, no, I won’t agree with that,” Uchechukwu concluded.
