Libya Football Federation’s wish of having a walking over against the Super Eagles in Tuesday night’s African Cup of Nations qualifier has been dashed by the Confederation of African Football.
The Libya FF had announced that the game will go on despite the Super Eagles’ boycott after they were left stranded by the hosts for 15 hours when they arrived Sunday evening for the game billed for 8 p.m.
But CAF said in statement that the game will not hold and the dispute between Libya and Nigeria has been “referred to the competent CAF bodies”.
“The TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Qualifier fixture between Libya and Nigeria will not take place as scheduled tonight.
“The matter will be referred to the competent CAF bodies.”
The Libyans justified the treatment meted to the Super Eagles by claiming that their team was also left stranded in Port Harcourt. But the Nigeria Football Federation denied the accusation saying the Libya FF were the architects of their own miss fortune by refusing to fly directly to Uyo venue of the first leg encounter. The NFF also claimed that while in Port Harcourt, the Libyans were given all assistant.
On Sunday the Super Eagles had their plane diverted to an out of use airport in Al Abaq, 230km from Benina near Benghazi.
The pilot said: “The flight plan was to land at Benghazi, Benina, and we had approval from the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority.
“However, as we began our descent, we were instructed to divert to Al-Abraq, which wasn’t even listed as our alternate airport. This decision came from the highest Libyan authorities, not me.
“In aviation, we calculate fuel based on our destination. Diverting unexpectedly can compromise safety.
“I repeatedly questioned the directive and warned them about fuel limitations, but they insisted that we land at Al-Abraq, citing orders from the highest authority.”
