nigeria

‎There are conflicting reports about whether or not the match scheduled for Tuesday evening between the Libyan and Nigerian national teams in the qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco will be played. 

While the Nigerian Football Federation decided to withdraw the Nigerian team from the match and the Nigerian mission has already left Labraq Airport heading to Nigeria, media outlets reported statements by officials in the Nigerian Football Federation that the Nigerian team will return to Libya on the eve of the match and head directly to the stadium.

Nigerian media cited the Federation as saying that the mission remained stuck at the airport for more than 12 hours and that the exhausted and frustrated players decided not to play the match as the mission was unable to reach their hotel in Benghazi, which is three hours away from the Airport.

The captain of the Nigerian national team, William Troost-Ekong, said on his Instagram account that hotels near the Labraq airport refused to receive them, and indicated that traveling by land was unsafe, even with the presence of security forces, and that they “cannot imagine how they will be treated in the hotel or the food that will be provided to them."

The Libyan national football team had been subjected to poor treatment and reception in Nigeria after an arduous journey, as the Libyan national team delegation arrived in Nigeria on last Tuesday evening. The delegation was dropped off at an airport more than 200 kilometers away from the city that would host the match, and they remained for more than three hours at the airport waiting for the bus to take them to the hotel.

The delegation sat on the ground waiting for the bus, before three minibuses were provided, which transported the mission members in difficult conditions in the middle of the forests and stops along the way.

The private car, which carried training clothes, clothes designated for the match, and transporting food, was stolen, as the driver changed his destination without anyone noticing him, which led the Nigerian security to open an investigation in order to arrest him.