The Confederation of Africa Football, CAF, moved to restore dignity and discipline to the game of football in Africa with deserved sanctions imposed on the Libyan Football Federation, LFF, over its barbaric treatment of the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles, when the latter visited for the second leg of the Maroc 2025 African Cup of Nations, AFCON, qualifier in Libya.

The Disciplinary Committee of CAF ruled that Libya should forfeit all three points at stake. It also ordered the country to pay a fine of $50,000, and dismissed all its prayers for relief. Libya claimed the sanctions were “unjust” and hired a Tunisian lawyer to appeal the case at the International Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS.

Libya, which was at the bottom of Group “D” of the qualifiers, displayed acts inimical to the spirit of sportsmanship in the two-legged qualifiers. They refused to cooperate or accept the well laid-out protocols by Nigerian officials. They kept our officials in the dark about their flight scheduling, landed at Port Harcourt Airport instead of Uyo where they were being awaited and rejected transport and hotel arrangements made for them.

After losing 0-1 in the match on Friday, October 11, 2024 at Uyo, the Libya Mediterranean Kings raised a false alarm that they were maltreated, and vowed to extract their pound of flesh in the return leg.

The aircraft carrying the Nigerian team was diverted to Al-Abraq Airport instead of Benghazi, the venue of the match. The Eagles were kept there without food and water, and were exposed to dehumanising conditions which trended in the social media. Nigerian officials had to boycott the match and lodged an official complaint with CAF.

We commend the African football ruling body for taking appropriate and prompt actions to address this affront on football by LFF, which threatened a diplomatic rumpus between Nigeria and Libya.

We hope that CAF has finally come awake and will henceforth adopt zero tolerance for the maltreatment of visiting teams in all competitions organised by it. For far too long, many African countries, especially the North Africans, have subjected visiting teams to all sorts of dehumanising treatments on and off the field of play.

Fans are encouraged to intimidate and harass players, club officials, media reporters of visiting teams and match officials, all in efforts to win by all means. Many Nigerian club sides, especially Enyimba FC and Rivers United FC, have told tales of woes at the hands of North African hosts, and CAF allowed it to linger for so long.

CAF must foster the true spirit of sportsmanship and use sports to build unity and friendship among Africans as we see in Europe and other civilised climes.

The sanctions meted out to LFF are capable of curbing impunity in African football.