The Libyan national football team has finished its preparation training sessions in Egypt for AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast, returning to Benghazi for the rest of training.

The Libyan team, under the management of the newly appointed French coach, Corentin Martins, conducted daily physical and technical training without conducting any friendly matches, a move that was met with bitter criticism from the sports community, especially in light of Martins’s lack of knowledge about the list of players that were summoned, including names that participated with the national team for the first time. The assistant coach, Omar Al-Maryami, and team manager Ali Al-Aswad were also criticized.

Libya will play Botswana at Benina Stadium in Benghazi as first AFCON qualifier on June 1st in the tenth group that contains Tunisia, and Equatorial Guinea, which will play Libya on June 06.