NFF Goes Hard On Agent Babawo; TEN Of His Players Axed From Nigeria U17s

Allnigeriasoccer.com understands that the Nigeria Football Federation has dropped ten players that were introduced to the Golden Eaglets coach Manu Garba by agent Babawo Mohammed.

The relationship between NFF chieftains and the Jos-based intermediary is far from cordial as he was accused of derailing the careers of several of the players in the Golden Eaglets class of 2013 that won the World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Nigerian Federation officials have accused coach Manu Garba of being too close to Babawo Mohammed and wondered why he sits on the bench whenever the agent is screening players for an academy linked to him.

As many as twelve players represented by Babawo Mohammed were on the initial 40-man list called up for the screening exercise and they were mainly distributed between two academies, Gee Lec Football Academy and Gsmart Academy, in order not to arouse suspicion.

The 12 players were gradually dropped from the team when the screening started, with seven first dropped, before three players were axed.

And Babawo could have been left with only one player in the team but NFF’s Robinson Okosun had a change of heart, reinstating a Kaduna-based player from Unity Academy after earlier claiming he’s too old to make the squad without an MRI test conducted.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel