The Confederation of African Football will on Wednesday, October 23 announce its decision on the botched AFCON qualifying Group D between Libya and Nigeria, which was scheduled for Benina Martyrs Stadium, Libya on October 15.
Team Nigeria had arrived for the match on Sunday, October 14, only for their flight to be diverted to Al Abraq International Airport, which is about three hours away by road to Benghazi, the venue of the match. The Libyan authorities held them captive for approximately 17 hours, leaving them traumatized as they flew back to their home country.
Nigeria lodged a complaint with CAF lamenting their ordeal, and the Libyan Federation said that the Nigerians did not cooperate with them in any way, whether in the first or second leg, indicating that their experience is a child’s play compared to theirs while in Nigeria for the first leg.
CAF had described what happened to the Nigerian team in Libya as “extremely dangerous,” noting that it had contacted the Libyan and Nigerian authorities after reporting that the latter had been subjected to worrying conditions for hours at the airport. It referred the matter to its disciplinary committee to investigate and take appropriate action against those who violated the regulations.
A day after the botched encounter, CAF delisted the fixture from its calendar after announcing its cancellation hours before kick-off, with the matter referred to the Disciplinary Committee for consideration.
Now according to Libya Al-Ahrar Channel, the apex continental football body will announce the final decision regarding the players’ ordeal during the first leg in Nigeria in October, which ended 1-0 in favour of the Super Eagles and the reverse fixture that would have held at the 10,550-capacity, Libya’s first all-seater stadium.
The outlet on Monday, October 21 also revealed that the Libyan Football Federation submitted all the documents it collected with a specialised lawyer assigned by the body to supervise the Libyan file with the Confederation of African Football.
