Nigeria Newspapers Online

The event of last week in Lib­ya involving the authorities of the Libyan Football Fed­eration (LFF) and the trav­eling Nigerian contingent for the match-day four of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers was remi­niscent of the recurring incidents of hooliganism and deliberate actions tended to undermine visiting teams to that country.

Recall that two of Nigeria’s frontline football clubs – Enyimba International and Rivers United – have had their fair shares of very abysmal poor treatment from the Libyan authorities in the course of prosecuting their continental foot­ball matches.

However, the event of last week seen as amounting to taking hoo­liganism and arbitrariness too far, all in a bid to dampen the morale of the former African champions, as the treatment meted out to the Su­per Eagles and the entire traveling contingent from Nigeria not only drew global attention but was wide­ly condemned with calls for severe sanction against the LFF being on the lips of everyone.

Ahead of that match-day four be­tween the Mediterranean Knights and the Super Eagles due to take place at the Benina Martyrs Stadium in Benghazi, the host obviously des­ecrated football with their show of shame, all in a bid to frustrate their opponents, who had earlier beaten them 1-0 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo.

Problem started when the air­plane conveying the Super Eagles, which was originally scheduled to land in Benghazi for the second leg of the two-match series, was diverted to Al-Abraq Airport 240 kilometres east.

Promise Efoghe, the Super Eagles media officer, told our correspon­dent; “About an hour to landing, the Nigerian aircraft approaching its destination Benghazi was diverted to another city more than two-hour drive from the original destination,” Efoghe said.

The diversion came even as the delegations of Ghana and Sudan, who were also playing the same day in the same city, were allowed to land.

Also the diversion came par­ticularly as the pilot informed the personnel at the Benghazi airport control tower that he was running low on fuel and that the decision to divert the plane was a huge risk.

“The flight plan was to land at Benghazi, Benina, and we had the approval from the Libyan Civil Avi­ation Authority to do so,” the pilot said in a video.

“However, when we began our de­scent, they instructed us to divert to Al-Abraq, which is almost 150 miles away, around 300 kilometres east. It wasn’t even our alternate airport, something which is not good.”

On potential risks of the diver­sion, he said: “In aviation, we have our flight plan, we calculate the fuel to our destination, so we have to avoid this kind of thing because it may make a breach to safety. I repeat­edly questioned the directive.

“When I asked to land in Beng­hazi according to my flight plan and according to my authorisation, they said no, it’s from the highest author­ity, you have to land in Al-Abraq.”

He continued: “Everything is registered in aviation, we cannot hide anything, so I asked them sev­eral times, at least eight times, and I warned them, probably I will be in trouble for fuel; they said it’s from highest authority, you cannot land in Benghazi, you have to divert im­mediately to Al-Abraq.

“The truth was we were going to Benghazi, and I can show you the evidence of the approval, I have it. But at the last minute, they changed their mind and changed the airport.

“There is no ILS (Instrument Landing System), no air navigation approach, no VHR (VHF Omnidi­rectional Range). We had to make a visual landing, which is particular­ly difficult by night with marginal weather.

“It was not an easy matter at all. When a pilot hears this, he will understand that it was not an easy thing to land under such conditions. Thank God we made it safely.”

Meanwhile, absolving the Libyan Football Federation of any complic­ity, Nasser Al-Suwaie, the FA secre­tary, said it wasn’t the decision of the federation to divert the flight.

In a report published in the online version of Libyaalahrar.tv, Al-Su­waie said the Libyan Federation did not change the course of the plane’s landing to Al-Abraq Airport, and the reason for changing the plane’s landing to Al-Abraq was a decision by the Libyan State, a statement that also indicted the country.

While at the Al-Abraq Airport, the Nigeria contingent were left for close to 20 hours without food and water, as the players were seen in viral videos and pictures helpless and uncomfortably lying down on hard surfaces while waiting in vain for vehicle to take them to their hotel.

NFF image maker, Demola Olaji­re, said of their ordeal; “On landing at the Al-Abraq International Air­port, in the small town of Labraq, at 19.50hours, it was clear that the air­port was not a well-utilized facility. There were no scanning machines or the usual equipment for this ser­vice, and officials had to make do with mobile phones to scan passport data pages.

“It took over one hour for the team’s luggage to roll through the carousel, despite the fact that the bags and other items had already been hauled from the aircraft im­mediately on arrival.

“No official of the Libyan Foot­ball Federation was at the airport to receive the delegation, as is the best practice globally. Airport officials could not answer the simple ques­tion on where the buses that would take the delegation members back to Benghazi (where the NFF had booked hotel rooms) were.

“When delegation members, in­cluding the NFF President, Comrade Shaibu and Dr Sanusi attempted to venture outside the airport to ascer­tain if there were vehicles waiting for the team, they were stopped in the most uncouth of manners by airport security personnel.

“Calls to the General Secretary of LFF, Mr. Abdul-Nasser by Dr Sanusi yielded no fruits as the for­mer kept promising that the buses would arrive in ‘10 minutes’, which later became ‘two hours’, and after­wards, ‘three hours.’ Later in the evening, it was no longer possible to reach him on the phone. Frus­trated by this attitude, Dr Sanusi approached the security operatives to request that the team be allowed to go out and board the buses the NFF eventually hired. This request was rejected with insults. It took the intervention of the NFF dignitaries to prevent what would have escalat­ed into a row as the NFF President himself was not spared when he heard exchange of voices between the security personnel and his Gen­eral Secretary. This aggravated the tension and further frustrated the team.

“Hour after hour, and with mounting frustration, delegation members, particularly the players, grew restless.

“There was no food or water pro­vided by the LFF, or where to even procure these items, and there was no network or internet connection at the airport. These swiftly increased the level of frustration and anger.

“At past midnight, it was learnt that there had been word from ‘higher authorities’ (Libya is a ju­risdiction governed by two different administrations – a UN-recognized cabinet in Tripoli and a self-imposed team over Eastern Libya including places like Benghazi and Labraq) that the Nigeria delegation should be delayed for minimum of 10 hours at the airport for what they falsely claimed was done to their team in Nigeria.”

NFF president, Ibrahim Gusau, expressed shock at the treatment, saying; “We anticipated some shocks here given the false account of what happened in Nigeria as narrated by their team captain.

“But we did not expect these shenanigans. What I am seeing is despicable and has no place in the game of football which is meant to foster excellent relationships among nations and bring peoples from di­verse cultures, religious persuasions and economic and political interests together in an ambience of peace and joy.”

Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong, relayed the situation more succinctly

“12+ hours in an abandoned air­port in Lybia after our plane was diverted whilst descending. Lybian 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. All to play mind games.”

However, the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) said their own team faced similar situation in Nigeria, thus underlining the pop­ular stance that they were out for reciprocity over their alleged mal­treatment.

“It is important to highlight that just last week, our own national team faced significant challenges upon our arrival in Nigeria for the third match of the Africa Cup of Nations qualification,” a statement from LFF read.

“Despite the difficulties we en­countered, we did not make public accusations nor question the integ­rity of the Nigerian authorities.

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But those claims by the LFF were disputed by Emmanuel Ayabunmi, the NFF’s Director of Protocol, who said the Libyans were the architects of their own chaos while in Nigeria.

Ayabunmi said: “I spoke to the General Secretary of LFF, at length, on Monday (before the match in Uyo on Friday) and he never hinted that his team would be arriving on Tuesday (the following day). He only said he would get back to me but he never did.

“On Monday evening, someone sent as an advance party by the LFF called me and said his team would be arriving on Tuesday by noon. We made all arrangements to receive the team in Uyo on arrival.

“It was only an hour after the team was airborne that he told me the delegation would be landing in Port Harcourt. That disrupted so many things, but we still raced on hurdles to get approval from federal authorities to allow their plane to fly them to Uyo once they conclud­ed immigration formalities in Port Harcourt.

“Apparently, that would have meant additional cost to the LFF from the charter company, and they didn’t want that, so they preferred to travel from Port Harcourt to Uyo by road.”

Meanwhile, according to CAF Statutes, Libya breached fundamen­tal rules which should attract severe punitive measures to them.

For instance, the very match which gave rise to the issue falls under Article 3 (3.1) of the Reg­ulations which the Organising Committee of the Africa Cup of Nations have the charge on reg­ulations governing the competi­tion, and the organisation of the competition.

For the qualifying phase, the Or­ganising Committee is competent to amongst other things ‘take decisions relative to any complaint’ and in emergency cases ‘take decisions by correspondence or by fax or email’ (See Articles 4.2.3 and 4.2.7 of the Regulations).

It is interesting to note that Arti­cle 16.9 of the Regulations provides that ‘the matches shall be played in compliance with the Laws of the Game’.

The Laws of the Game al­ways engenders fair play, before, during and after games. This is a ‘crucial foundation of the game and a vital feature of the spirit of the game’.

Fair play means extending warm hands of welcome and according all due hospitality to a visiting team in the context of a football match.

Article 16.14 of the Regulations provides that ‘if there is an inter­national airport in the city where the match will be held or near that city by less than 200kms; and if the visiting team wishes to land directly at this airport, the host association must facilitate all formalities for entry’.

In the light of the regulations stipulating that the host association, Libya Football Federation, must fa­cilitate all formalities for the entry of the visiting team, the Super Eagles, the inability of the Libyan authori­ties to ensure a smooth entry process for the Nigerian team represents a significant breach of these obliga­tions.

By not facilitating the nec­essary entry requirements, the Libyan Football Federation not only undermined the spirit of the regulations but also compro­mised the integrity of the match itself and potentially the integrity of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The Regulations are in place to accord protection to the rights of visiting teams, ensuring that they can travel, enter, and com­pete without facing unnecessary barriers.

The lack of support from the Lib­yan Football Federation constitutes a violation of these regulatory stan­dards, which are meant to foster a conducive environment for interna­tional matches.

The Regulations outline re­ception requirements under Article 31 covering ‘reception at the airport’, ‘transport facilities’, ‘accommodation’, ‘security mea­sures’, and ‘seeing the visiting team off ’.

On the diversion of the aircraft even when the pilot had raised alarm of shortfall in fuel, Barrister Eme­ka Kalu, an Umuahia-based legal practitioner, while in a chat with our correspondent, said whoever directed the aircraft to divert despite the warning could be charged for at­tempted murder.

“It looks like an intent to kill the people on board if the pilot actually told them that he had not enough fuel, and in the eyes of the law, some people can go in for it,” he told our correspondent on phone.

Meanwhile, calls have been made to ensure that Libya are sanctioned over the incident that embarrassed Africa before the global community.

Saying CAF isn’t doing enough, former international, Garba Law­al, said Libya should be outrightly sanctioned.

“CAF is not doing enough. The behaviour of Libya is totally unac­ceptable. Football is not a do-or-die affair. This is football, not war.

“Libya shouldn’t escape serious punishment from CAF.”

Another ex-international, Dahiru Sadi, said; “I totally support the de­cision to pull out of the match. We can’t fold our hands and watch what is happening in football.

“Why is it that anything negative is in Africa? I am calling on CAF to urgently sanction Libya to serve as a deterrent to others.”

Former federal lawmaker, Sena­tor Shehu Sani, said stiffer sanction should be meted out to the Maghreb country.

“Libya’s treatment of the Su­perEagles is unacceptable and con­demnable. CAF must impose seri­ous sanctions on them.”

Former First Vice Chairman of the Edo State Football Association and Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Truth Live News Media, Dcn Darlington Okpebholo-Ray, said with a strong action from CAF, this will deter other countries.

“The events surrounding the match between Nigeria and Libya have exposed the darker side of Af­rican football.

“However, with strong action from CAF, these events can serve as a turning point. By taking deci­sive measures, CAF can ensure that football remains a force for good on the continent, uniting rather than dividing nations”.

Meanwhile, commentators have weighed in on the allegation of similar treatment in Nigeria which perhaps warranted the reprisal, saying retaliation has no place in football.

They noted that if at all such thing happened to their contingent to Nigeria, the right thing would have been to make a formal report as Nigeria had made and wait for response from CAF.

“I know they may want to jus­tify their actions but if something like that had happened to them, the right thing is not to retaliate as they have done,” said a former Enyimba player, Mfon Udoh, as quoted by an online medium.

“I think they want to run away from sanction but CAF will make a mistake to spare them because others will do the same if nothing is done.

“Retaliation alone is a big crime in football and I see no reason why they should be spared,” he said.