Team at the airport for hours
©IMAGO
After a grotesque odyssey in Libya, Nigeria’s national team wants to boycott the Africa Cup qualifying duel scheduled for Tuesday evening. Before the planned international match, the Super Eagles were apparently stranded for many hours at an airport around 200 kilometers away from the actual venue of Benghazi. They are said to have been diverted there “strangely and in a dangerous way” after they were already on the landing approach, said the NFF association.
It is also said that there was neither a reception team nor vehicles on site to take the delegation members from the airport to their hotel, which is three hours away in Benghazi. Therefore, the decision was made to “not play the game anymore as the NFF officials are making plans for the team to fly back home”. The team’s plane is now said to have been refueled and is due to return shortly.
“I’ve been at the airport for almost 13 hours, no food, no WiFi, nowhere to sleep,” wrote Bayer Leverkusen’s top striker Victor Boniface on platform X. The attacker later added: “This is getting scary now. You can have the point. We just want to go back to our country.” According to reports from other players, the airport was said to be deserted and there was no food or drink for the Nigerian team in the locked waiting area.
Nigeria’s sports and foreign ministers outraged
Nigeria’s Sports Minister John Owan Enoh expressed outrage that the flight carrying the team had been diverted and that the team was now “in something of a hostage situation.” The politician spoke of “trauma and psychological torture”. Also because the team fears for their safety, the Africa Cup of Nations qualification game in Libya cannot take place on Tuesday.
The Nigerians suspect that the chaotic situation is a retaliation by the Libyans. According to the media, the Libyan association LFF had previously complained that they had been badly treated during the first leg in Nigeria on Friday. Accordingly, the guest team had to wait several hours for a shuttle bus. The LFF rejected the suspicion of sabotage and pointed out that the diversion of aircraft was nothing unusual in international air traffic.
Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar was also concerned about developments surrounding his country’s footballers. Captain William Troost-Ekong assured: “We would never treat a visiting nation like this for a game. Mistakes happen, delays happen. But never on purpose!”
