The report said 29 players were found to be over-aged after a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) bone scan conducted on the Nigerian team by world soccer's governing body FIFA.
Sports Minister Sani Ndanusa has thus directed that all 29 players be immediately withdrawn from the squad, the report said.
Officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) have neither confirmed nor deny the report that many members of the Golden Eaglets, as the Nigerian team is known, are over-aged.
A recent newspaper report said the NFF has approached the government of Lagos for the possibility of using the state's team for the tournament, apparently because it will be difficult to raise a new national team with just a bout two months to the 24 Oct-15 Nov. 2009 tournament.
On Sunday, Nigeria's opposition Action Congress (AC) party weighed in on the controversy surrounding the over-aged players, calling for ''an urgent investigation into the report''.
``Now with the possibility that Nigeria will field a makeshift team at best, the country stands no chance in the forthcoming tournament. This will be a shame of international proportion and we need to fish out those responsible for selecting the team and slam them with appropriate sanctions to prevent a recurrence," AC said in a statement issued here.
The party recalled that Nigeria, a notable success in FIFA's age-grade competitions, had previously been banned by FIFA for fielding over-aged players in its competition.
Nigeria has won the FIFA Under-17 World Cup thrice, the highest by any African team.
Lagos - 25/08/2009
Pana
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