An appeal against an alleged over-age opponent may re-open the route for Nigeria's under-23 football team to qualify for Paris 2024 ©Getty Images

Nigeria’s under-23 Olympic Eagles football team, who missed out on Olympic qualification for the second successive time after defeat by Guinea last week, are seeking for the route to be re-opened because they allege their opponents fielded an over-age player.

The Eagles were beaten 2-0 on aggregate by Guinea on March 29 in the final qualifier for the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco - from which three teams will progress directly to Paris 2024, as reported by The News Guru.

But the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has now petitioned the Confederation of African Football (CAF) asking for Guinea to be disqualified because it believes it has evidence that one of their players, Fode Camara, was over-age.

Nigeria's followers of the under-23 Olympic Eagles may yet be able to see the team play at Paris 2024 if an appeal concerning an over-age opponent is successful ©Getty Images
Nigeria's followers of the under-23 Olympic Eagles may yet be able to see the team play at Paris 2024 if an appeal concerning an over-age opponent is successful ©Getty Images

If Guinea are disqualified, as the NFF now believe they will be, Nigeria will go through to the Under-23 2023 AFCON from June 24 to July 8.

The top three teams at the tournament will qualify automatically for the Paris 2024 Olympics men’s football tournament.

The fourth-placed team will contest the Asian Football Confederation-CAF playoffs to decide the final Olympic qualification place.

The last time the Eagles appeared in the Olympics, at Rio 2016, they won bronze, having been Africa Under-23 Cup of Nations champions in 2015.

Nigeria won the Olympic title at Atlanta 1996.

Olympic football players have been required to be under 23 years old since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in order to avoid competition with the FIFA World Cup.

Since Atlanta 1996, a maximum of three over-23 players have been allowed per squad.