Nigeria Boycott 2025 AFCON Qualifier In Libya, Allege "Inhumane Treatment"
The Nigerian men’s soccer team, the Super Eagles, were stranded for over 15 hours at Al Abraq airport in Libya.
The team was scheduled to play a 2025 AFCON qualifier against Libya in Benghazi on Tuesday, 15 October, but decided not to play.
In an Instagram post, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) said that the squad was stranded overnight at Al Abraq airport outside of Al Bayda, Libya. It had originally been set to land over 200 kilometres away in Benghazi. Said the NFF:
The chartered ValueJet aircraft was, strangely and in a dangerous manner, diverted to the small airport away from Benghazi just as the pilot was completing his approach to the Benghazi Airport. We understand the Al Abraq International Airport is only used for hajj operations.
Fatigued players and officials have remained nonplussed as the host Libyan Football Federation (LFF) failed to send any reception team or even vehicles to take the delegation members from the airport to their hotel, said to be 3 hours away in Benghazi.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) denied any foul play, claiming the diversion was unintentional and hoping for a resolution.
The NFF previously rejected claims of poor treatment by the Libya captain and accused the LFF of creating chaos.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has referred the matter to its Disciplinary Board for investigation and appropriate action.
Team captain William Troost-Ekong described the situation as “mind games,” saying they were left without a phone connection, food, or drink. He wrote on X:
12+ hours in an abandoned airport in (Libya) after our plane was diverted whilst descending. (Libyan) government rescinded our approved landing in Benghazi with no reason. They’ve locked the airport gates and left us without phone connection, food or drink…
I’ve experienced stuff before playing away in Africa but this is disgraceful behavior. Even the Tunisian Pilot who thankfully managed to navigate the last minute change to an airport not fit for our plane to land had never seen something like this before.
This kind of behavior, let them have the points. We will not accept to travel anywhere by road here even with security it’s not safe.
We can only imagine what the hotel or food would be like given to us IF we continued. We respect ourselves and respect our opponents when they are our guests in Nigeria.
Mistakes happen but these things on purpose have nothing to do with (international) football.
Troost-Ekong shared images of players trying to sleep at the airport, and suggested again that it was a deliberate attempt to disrupt the team, stating, “We would NEVER treat a guest nation for a game in this way.”
He later confirmed the team had returned to Nigeria.
The Super Eagles defeated Libya 1-0 in Nigeria and lead Group D with 7 points. Libya is at the bottom with one point, while Benin and Rwanda hold the second and third spots respectively.
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