Fashanu also said that FIFA could suspend Kanu from playing for Arsenal for the duration of the Olympics. We're not sure that this is not the case.

It's our understanding that if an overage player chooses not to accept the invitation to play, it is unlikely that FIFA would force them to. This differs from other FIFA-sanctioned tournaments where they would be keen to punish club and player (such as the African Nations Cup which took Kanu from us earlier this year).

We presume that this difference stems from FIFA's reluctance to give the Olympic tournament full recognition. FIFA's worry that the Olympics could come to challenge the World Cup as football's premier tournament is behind their insistence that the Olympic football tournament be an U23 tournament, and making it so that overage players can effectively only be invited to play reinforces this.

A FIFA circular dated 23rd June this year stresses that national associations should be mindful of the fact that the dates of the Olympic tournament are likely to cause problems for clubs. The circular stresses that national associations should in all cases take into consideration the interests of all parties concenred, and in the case of overage players it suggests that national associations "may well decide... to make use only of overage players whose availability is not problematic to their clubs".

It should also be noted that the other 2 overage players initially invited along with Kanu were Jay Jay Okocha and Sunday Oliseh. Both wrote to the Nigerian FA asking to be left out and both had their wish granted (Oliseh's stated reason was that he didn't want to deny a youngster the chance to play). So the NFA made things hard for themselves by setting this precedent.

The NFA makes a habit of making things hard for themselves. According to our sources, they couldn't even manage getting hold of some of their under-23 players, who could have been forced. They delayed making their minds up about who they wanted, and as a result players like Aliyu Mohammed have been left out. Mohammed is regarded by many as one of the most talented young players in Italian football, but has been left in Italy with AC Milan even though the Italian league has been delayed to accommodate the Olympics! Agali, thought to be possibly the next Kanu, was not released by his German club, and the NFA didn't bother to force his release even though they could have done so easily. Meanwhile they're going on about forcing Kanu to play even though they know they probably can't.

Our sources also confirm that the Korea match was thrown by the Nigerians because of arguments over bonuses (so no, Derek didn't dream it). One of the (many) NFA spokemen confirmed this initially, but their story has since officially become that they threw it to lull the opposition into a false sense of security (good idea to announce it publicly, then). See AllAfrica.com for an entertaining account.

Perhaps wanting to play for Arsenal isn't the only reason for Kanu staying in England. Perhaps he didn't want to get involved in this mess. Perhaps he's doing a more patriotic thing by staying away. Perhaps that's for him to decide, rather than a failed TV presenter who decided to play for England instead (but didn't get very far).

A word of warning however, it's not too late for Kanu to change his mind, and the Nigerian FA are still (publicly) optimistic that he will do so. No replacement has yet been named. See also CyberEagles.