Julius OkorieApparently seeking for non-existent justification for the ugly and inhuman treatment meted at the Nigerian Contingent to Libya for AFCON qualifier return leg, Captain of the Knights of Libya Faisal Al-Badri has claimed they received poor treatment on arrival in Nigeria in the first leg of their 2025 AFCON qualifier last Friday in Uyo.
The afterthought submission is coming amidst condemnations of Libyan authorities from far and near following their treatment of Super Eagles who were kept stranded at seldom used Al Abraq airport for hours after arriving Libya for a match billed for Tuesday, October 15.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIn a swift reaction the NFF described the claim as unfounded and insisted the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) created chaos for its own team, the Mediterranean Knights and that what they claim to be poor treatment was not the doing of the NFF
NFF’s Assistant Director (Protocol), Mr. Emmanuel Ayanbunmi said the Libya Federation only informed the NFF that its team was landing in Port Harcourt, and not Uyo, only three hours to the team’s arrival on Tuesday.
“I spoke to the General Secretary of LFF, at length, on Monday, 7th October and he never hinted that his team would be arriving on Tuesday (the following day). He only said he would get back to me but he never did. On Monday evening, someone sent as an advance party by the LFF called me and said his team would be arriving on Tuesday by noon. We made all arrangements to receive the team in Uyo on arrival.
“It was only an hour after the team was airborne that he told me the delegation would be landing in Port Harcourt. That disrupted so many things, but we still raced on hurdles to get approval from federal authorities to allow their plane to fly them to Uyo once they concluded immigration formalities in Port Harcourt.
“Apparently, that would have meant additional cost to the LFF from the charter company, and they didn’t want that, so they preferred to travel from Port Harcourt to Uyo by road.”
Ayanbunmi added that the Libyan delegation jettisoned road transportation arrangements made for them by the NFF and instead hired buses on their own.
“If they travelled on buses that were not air-conditioned, that had nothing to do with the NFF as they hired their own buses. We provided security for them, with men and vehicles in front and behind their buses, so we are unmoved about their complaints”.
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The Libyan antics are not unconnected with a desire to force the Eagles to boycott the match so that the Knights can earn three points without playing.
Interestingly even if that is so they will still end up walking tight rope with four points behind Benin Republic currently in the second place with six points. Libya who are playing the spoilers here have been to the Nations cup three times with the debutant edition in 1982 making it all the way to the finals before losing 7-6 on penalty to Black Stars of Ghana after the encounter ended 1-1. That was their best appearance so far as the next two appearances in 2006 and 2012 ended at the group stage.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
