Today, the Nigeria national team’s flight landed at a different airport far from its normal flight path, and the Libyan Football Federation failed to provide transport to Benghazi afterward. The distance between the two cities, which exceeds 200 km and involves security threats, has infuriated the Super Eagles.
Captain Troost-Ekong stated that this unfortunate situation resulted from malicious actions. The boycott decision made by Nigeria was not taken as seriously by CAF as expected, and even President Patrice Motsepe encouraged Nigeria to play in the match. However, Nigeria’s Sports Minister John Owan Enoh rejected this request.
“This morning I was on a conference call with CAF President and CAF Secretary General,” Enoh said.
“While the CAF President’s concern seems to be what to do to get the national team to participate in tomorrow’s match, I have instead informed CAF that the concern of the Government and people of Nigeria is first, the safety of the team and their safe return, urging that CAF should focus on working with us to achieve this.
“There must be a serious adverse consequence to the Libyan football federation for this unspeakable behavior. This cannot be through insisting that Nigeria still takes part in this match given the very obvious situation.”
