Nigeria threatens Iran over age comment

Nigeria threatens Iran over age comment
on october 30, 2013 at 11:03 pm in sports
Manu Garba, head coach of Nigeria ponders
during the FIFA U17 group F match between
Sweden and Nigeria at Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium
on October 22, 2013 in Al Ain, United Arab
Emirates. Photo by FIFA
By John Egbokhan reporting from Dubai
Golden Eaglets Coach Manu Garba has threatened
to lodge a formal complaint against Iranian coach Ali
Doustimehr for insinuating that the Nigerians were
playing with players over the age of 17 at the
ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup here in the United
Arab Emirates.
The Eaglets have been in scintillating form, where
they have netted 18 goals in four matches, the
latest being a 4-1 thrashing of Iran on Tuesday in a
round of 16 match at the Khalifa Bin Zayed Stadium.
Mesmerized with the Eaglets strong show, the
Iranian coach, Ali Doustimehr,  made a subtle
remark, casting doubts over the true ages of the
Nigerians and responding to the jibe, Coach Garba
said that his players here passed all the MRI tests
conducted by CAF and FIFA, prior to the African
U-17 tournament and ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Coach Garba said that “we are going to officially
take it up with the Iranian coach if he does not take
back his words. Back in January before the CAF
U-17 tournament, a memo was sent to us that all
the players were going to do MRI tests for the wrist
bones and we did.
“A month before we came here, another test was
done by FIFA for all the players and the ones here
passed. So I do not know what he is talking about”,
Garba wondered.