BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

There is an anxious wait in both Nigeria and Libya as the Confederation of African Football (CAF) is expected to release the findings of its nine-man Disciplinary Board on the Libya – Nigeria botched Africa Cup of Nations qualifying duel earlier this month.

The day coincides with what could have been the 61st birthday of one of Nigeria’s football legends, Rashidi Yekini. The birthday of the nation’s all-time top scorer can only be marked posthumously as he died on 4 May 2012.

He shares the birthday with an even greater legend, the Brazilian Pele who could have been 84 years today. It will be icing on the posthumous birthday of Yekini should the CAF’s ruling swing in Nigeria’s favour.

Already there is great expectations from Nigeria whose football federation’s prayers at the Disciplinary Board is an outright award of the botched match to the Super Eagles.

That will go with three points and three goals to cement the team’s Group D leadership with 10 points. Considering the weight of evidence which weighed heavily against Libya, a possible ban of their home games and fines are very likely.

Tunisia have fired manager Faouzi Benzarti three months after appointing the veteran following a shock home defeat by the tiny Comoros Island in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier earlier this month, the football federation said on Tuesday.

Benzarti, 74, was in his fourth spell as coach of Tunisia, who remain top of Group A despite taking one point from back-to-back games against the Comoros. They lost at home on Oct. 11 and drew 1-1 away four days later with the Indian Ocean islanders.

The home defeat was Tunisia’s first in a qualifier since Botswana upset them in 2010, also in Cup of Nations qualification.

Benzarti took over in September at the start of the 2025 Cup of Nations qualifiers and his team won the opening two group matches against Madagascar and the Gambia. He had previous stints as Tunisia coach in 1994, 2010 and 2018.

Tunisia complete their qualifiers with return matches against Gambia and Madagascar next month and if they finish in the top two places in Group A they will secure a record-extending 17th successive Cup of Nations finals appearance.

-Reuters

On the sidelines of the 46th General Assembly of CAF in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the CAF President remarked on the ill-treatment meted to the Super Eagles in an ill-fated Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match.

The continental body which has instituted an investigation has used the instance to tell the African football delegates of CAF’s zero tolerance of inhospitable acts.

Signposting his general remarks on the Libya-Nigeria episode, Dr Patrice Motsepe disclosed how he was woken up in the middle of the night about the issues in Libya.

“…Usually when I sleep, I’ve got my cell phone next to me, and it’s always open because and particularly, we’ve got 80,000 employees at the mines where I’m the either executive chairman or chairman.

“So I’ve got to be and particularly if there’s an accident at one of those mines.  I’ve got to know immediately. But of course, I’ve got lots of other responsibilities.

“I keep my phone open throughout the night and sometimes, I get the most somebody phones me and says that, my son has applied for a scholarship for you from your foundation. We haven’t heard from that.

“So, but it’s fine. I don’t know where they got my number, but it’s okay. There’s a reason why the phone is open.

“Let me tell you why I refer to that. It’s because when there was this problem with the Nigerian national team in Libya, and I will not comment on that because there’s a proper investigation, but I want to emphasize a principle that we will not tolerate because this is something that has been going on for quite some time.”

“Your national team let me emphasize, forget about the Nigeria and Libya situation because that process has been properly investigated and appropriate action will be taken.

“Appropriate action will be taken. I’ve heard too many stories of a football club or a national team goes to a country.

“You spend hours at the airport, and they ask you about documents that don’t exist.

“And, apparently, during COVID, they would look at who the best players are from your national team and say, those 10 players, they’ve got COVID.

“And you say, but we we’ve just been tested. No. No. No. No.

They’ve got COVID. But it’s this lack of sportsmanship that has existed, and we haven’t taken effective action.

“So I just wanna repeat. We  are proud of those nations that treats visiting national teams and visiting football clubs with the respect and dignity that they deserve, but also who treat them in the same way

“They wanna be treated when they visit those countries. So I just wanna repeat, we’re reviewing those laws, and we want to emphasize sportsmanship.”

When a national team from another country visits or a football club visits, treat them with the dignity and respect that it that they deserve. And if there are violations of those regulations and that and those rules, we will take action.”