Mohammed Shosanya
The Libya Football Federation (LFF),says it will take legal action against Nigeria over the botched second leg of the 2025 African Cup of Nations qualifying match,which was earlier billed to take place in the North Africa country on Tuesday.
The Libyan national team is taking the legal action in order to preserve its right, it said in a statement on Monday.
The Nigerian National Team had boycotted the return leg of the qualifying match on Monday,citing ill-treatmennt on the part of the Libyans on their airport.
Following a frustrating 12-hour ordeal at Al Abraq International Airport in Libya, where the Nigerian team was left stranded since their arrival on Sunday afternoon, condemnation has trailed the action of the host country.
While the Nigerian national team complained of fatigue and frustration, deprived of water and food, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) confirmed the team’s backing out of the qualifying series.
The Super Eagles beat the Libyan team 1-0 on Friday at Uyo, Akwa Ibom but was expected to play a return leg match in Benghazi on Tuesday in the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifying series.
The Nigerian team had since returned home.
But the Libyan National Team condemned the action of the Nigerian National action not to play the game tomorrow .
It denounced the inappropriate behavior of the delegation which almost prevented the Libyan delegation from playing the game last Friday, which is a violation to CAF rule.
It added:”The LFF emphasized that the NFF did not cooperate regarding the match in Nigeria as they did not receive equal treatment meted to other countries, and as stipulated in regulations – resulting to them not having a fair and equal opportunity.
The LFF apologizes to Libyan fans and followers and affirms that the NFF will bear full responsibility for failure to hold the match as scheduled”.
