Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, have issued a statement debunking reports that they maltreated the Libyan delegation to Nigeria for AFCON Qualifiers match, MySportDab reports.
We reported earlier that Libya held the Super Eagles of Nigeria hostage for several hours at Al ABraq Airport after the team arrived in the country for the reverse fixture of the 2025 AFCON Qualifiers match.
Footages shared on social media showed a distraught Super Eagles delegation in the halls of the Airport without being attended to.
The poor treatment meted out to the team was linked to reports that Nigeria did the same when Libya arrived in the country for the first of the double-header clash.
Libya national team captain, Faisal Al-Badri, claimed the team were forcefully made to travel by road for two hours from Port Harcourt to Uyo where the match was to be played.
Debunking the claim by Libya’s captain, NFF Protocol Officer Mr. Emmanuel Ayanbunmi said it was the decision of the Libya Football Federation to land at Port Harcourt instead of Uyo and that they informed the NFF of the change in plan three hours before their arrival.
According to him, the original plan was to have the team land at Uyo and arrangements were made to receive them before they changed plans suddenly.
The situation forced NFF into taking exigent measures to have them flown immediately to Uyo from Port Harcourt but the delegation refused flight and chose to use buses instead.
Ayanbunmi also added that NFF even went as far as making arrangements for buses but the Libyan contingents rejected the offer and picked their own buses. So, the NFF didn’t have a hand in the logical problems they claimed to have to transport themselves to Uyo for the match.
Here is what Ayanbunmi said in full:
“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 never did.
“On Monday evening, someone sent as an advanced party by the LFF called me and said his team would be arriving on Tuesday by noon. We made our arrangements to receive the team in Uyo.
“It was only an hour after the team was airborne that he told me the delegation would be landing in Port Harcourt. That disrupted 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 chapter company, and they didn’t want that, so, they preferred to travel from Port Harcourt to Uyo by road.
“NFF made arrangements for their road transportation but they jettisoned it. So, if they travel on buses that do not have air conditioning systems, the fault cannot be ours.
As we confirmed earlier, NFF has decided to pull the Super Eagles out of the match with all fingers now crossed on what will be CAF’s next step to settling the issue.
