Tough test for Ghana and Nigeria
Durosimi Thomas
BBC Sport, West Africa

The African Under-17 Championship that begins on Saturday will highlight the
progress of an emerging football nation, a newcomer to the party, two former
champions and some reputable regulars.

Three places at September's World Championship in Peru, as well as the title of
African Champions, are at stake.

Group A - African U-17 Championship
Gambia - hosts
Burkina Faso
Mali
Ghana

Winning the top honour in teenage football is nothing new to former World
champions Ghana and Nigeria, who have won the trophy four times between them.

But when hosts Gambia and Burkina Faso meet in Saturday's curtain-raiser, it
will be clear that times have changed from the days of Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu
and Ghanaian Samuel Kuffuor.


Group B
Nigeria
South Africa
Ivory Coast
Zimbabwe

Over the last decade, hosts Gambia have made an impression in regional
competitions and fans in the country expect their team to upset the formbook.

After staging one of the most successful Cabral Cup (a West African
competition) tournaments in 1997, the young Scorpions stunned many at the last
African Championship in Swaziland.

Gambia knocked out Ghana on the way to Swaziland, where they drew with eventual
champions Cameroon during the group stages of that competition.

Fred Osam-Duodu, who led the senior Ghanaian side to African Cup of Nations
triumph in 1978, is in charge of the Gambians.

After a month's camping in Egypt and Senegal, the Ghanaian trainer returned
with the side at the end of April

But it remains to be seen if the team will be able to build on the progress
made in Swaziland.

Ghana's Black Starlets also spent a month in Egypt preparing for the tournament
but unpaid wages and bonuses has done little to put them in a good frame of
mind for what could be a tough tournament.




Fellow West Africans Burkina Faso are making their third appearance and if
their past performance is a yard stick to go by, it will be foolhardy to rule
them out as serious contenders.

Mali, who have had intensive preparations, also hope to end their reputation as
perennial underachievers.

Nigeria, a country with a tradition of achievement at this level, meets South
Africa in the opening Group B tie.

After a poor Meridian Cup tournament in Turkey, Coach Godwin Izilien hopes the
Gambian experience will restore confidence in his players, who were shattered
by heavy defeats to European teams.

Zimbabwe, yet to make an impact at youth level, hope to draw inspiration from
the senior side's exploits at last year's African Nations Cup in Tunisia.

Madinda Ndlovu, coach of the side, said he hopes to nurture the young Warriors
into players that could help Zimbabwe qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu and Ghana's Samuel Kuffour were discovered at this level
and it would be no surprise if players of similar quality are found at a
competition that has the cream of African teenage talent.

Story from BBC SPORT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-
/sport1/hi/football/africa/4517297.stm******************************************
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