Nigerian footballer arrested in Amsterdam

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THE HAGUE, Jan 4, 2010 (AFP) - Victor Agali, a Nigerian-born footballer for Greek club Levadiakos, has been arrested at Schiphol airport near Amsterdam for carrying two fake passports, Dutch military police said on Monday.

"At passport control, on December 27, he (Agali) was found to be in possession of a fake passport," said gendarmerie spokesman Robert van Kapel.

Upon further investigation, the 31-year-old striker in transit at Schiphol on a voyage from Lagos to Athens, turned out to have two sets of fake travel documents, said Van Kapel.

"In the one, the page with his personal particulars has been modified, in the other it was the visa," he said.

A panel of judges will decide on Wednesday whether or not to extend the footballer's provisional detention, said a spokeswoman for the Haarlem district court.

Agali, who had been returning to Greece after visiting his wife and child in Nigeria, pleads innocence, his lawyer Bob Kaarls told AFP.

"The (first) passport judged problematic by officials was sent to him in this form by post by Nigerian authorities in 2007," he said.

Dutch authorities claimed that the Schengen visa contained in the second document, issued by Cyprus, did not meet the requisite standards, said Kaarls.

Kaarls said Levadiakos has indicated its willingness to pay the bail to secure their striker's freedom.

Agali has played for French teams including Marseille (1996-97), Toulon (1997-98) and Nice (2004-2005), as well as Germany's Schalke 04 (2001-2004).

On Christmas Day, a 23-year-old Nigerian was arrested in the United States for the botched bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane bound for Detroit from Schiphol.