Since Sunday, October 13, social media has been abuzz with news and photos of Nigerian football players stranded in an airport in Libya due to maltreatment in the country, here’s all we know so far.
Where did it start?
As part of their qualifiers for the 2025 African Cup Of Nations (AFCON), Nigeria’s Super Eagles played a match against the Mediterranean Knights of Libya on Friday, October 11, at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Akwa Ibom State. Thanks to a late goal by Dele Bashiru, the match ended 1-0 in favor of Nigeria.
Following the end of the first leg played in the country, the second match was then scheduled to be an away match in Libya. To prepare for this, the Super Eagles left Nigeria aboard a chattered flight on the morning of Sunday, October 13.
Flight diverted
The flight carrying the Nigerian team was supposed to land in the Benghazi airport but just as the pilot was completing his landing, he was diverted to Al Abraq International Airport, a smaller airstrip in another city outside of Benghazi.
Players stranded for over 12 hours
The Al Abraq International Airport is usually mostly used for Hajj operations so it wasn’t equipped enough to handle Super Eagles’ landing. To add to this, neither the Libyan government nor the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) provided any sort of support for the team- no welcoming committee, no food, no water, no WIFI, and no transportation to their hotel (which was now 3 hours away due to the diversion).
Players locked up
The poor treatment of the Nigerian national football team got worse because not only were they not provided with any assistance by the LFF, but they also couldn’t fix the issues themselves because the airport gates were locked and no cars could take them to their hotel.
The NFF speaks
On Monday, October 14, the NFF released a statement telling off the Libya Football Federation for their poor treatment of the Nigerian team.
In their statement, they explained that they “made arrangements for separate vehicles for the team but the plan was unhinged by the diversion of the aircraft.”
The NFF also said in the statement that its officials are currently making arrangements to bring the team back home.
Nigeria withdraws from the match
As it stands, Nigeria’s national team will no longer play against the Mediterranean Knights of Libya. Captain of the Nigerian team, William Troost Ekong announced this in an X post and the NFF confirmed this by stating that it respects the team’s decision.
Libya denies everything.
In a statement put out in their X account, the Libyan Football Federation denied that the inconvenience and ill-treatment of the Nigerian team was intentional as according to them, the diversion of the flight, “though unfortunate, are not uncommon.”
They also strongly condemned the accusations of foul play saying by saying “There are no grounds to accuse the Libyan security teams or the Libyan Football Federation of deliberately orchestrating this incident.” Such actions are inconsistent with our values and principles.”
CAF remains silent
Since news of the terrible incident in Libya broke out, the Confederation of African Football has yet to make any official statement concerning the issue even though many Nigerians on X have called on them to take action.
