The Confederation of African Football (CAF) Disciplinary Committee has reached a decision on the petition filed by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) over the ill-treatment meted to the Super Eagles during a African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers scheduled to be played in Benghazi.
Libya was found guilty of violating the competition rules which states that visiting teams must be properly received by the host association.
The chartered flight transporting Nigerian players and officials just before landing at Benghazi was redirected to land in Bayda instead of Benghazi, the intended destination.
They were abandoned at the locked airport usually used for Hajj operations in Bayda for more than 16 hrs without access to food and water and no contact with the Libyan officials according to the Nigerian team.
The Libyan Football Federation stated that the incident was not deliberate and also mentioned that their team faced travels issues while playing in Nigeria four days earlier.
The disciplinary board decided as follows:
“Libyan Football Federation was found to have breached Article 31 of the CAF African Cup of Nations regulations as well as Article 82 and 151 of the CAF Disciplinary code.
The match No. 87 Libya v Nigeria of the TotalEnergies CAF African Cup of Nations Qualifiers 2025 ( scheduled to be played on 15 October in Benghazi) is declared lost by forfeit by Libya ( by a score of 3-0).
The Libyan Football Federation is ordered to pay a fine of USD 50,000. This fine is to be paid within 60 days of notification of the present decision.
All other and further motions and prayers for relief are dismissed. “
This also highlights the consistently poor treatment meted out to visiting sides when playing around Africa — in both national team and club competitions.
CAF president Patrice Motsepe said earlier this week his organisation was looking at tightening up rules and regulations to deter bad treatment of visiting teams.
African football is notorious for poor treatment of visiting teams, with common tricks being delays going through immigration on arrival, circuitous and lengthy bus trips and the allocation of poor training facilities. On one occasion during COVID, the best 11 players on a team was said to have COVID and disqualified from the match.
The Libyan Football Federation has appealed the decision but it looks very unlikely to hold any water.
