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.”

According to Libyan sources, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) will announce its final decision on the botched Libya-Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match.

The two parties had until Sunday, October 19th, to submit their sides of the case. But as Libya Al-Ahrar Channel puts it, not just the failed match at Benina Stadium is being investigated.

The publication has it that the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) may have asked that the first-leg match that Libya lost should be included in the investigation.

According to Libya Al-Ahrar Channel, investigations “will include the events that accompanied the first and second leg matches between the national team and Nigeria in the qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.”

The Libyan Federation submitted all the documents it collected with a specialized lawyer assigned by the Libyan Federation to supervise the Libyan file with the Confederation of African Football.

A prominent Libyan football official, Al-Siddiq Abu Hadima,has called for tough sanctions on the Libyan Football Federation officials responsible for the crisis that engulfed the suspended Libya-Nigeria Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match.

Hadima, a former president of the Al-Dhahra Club, asked for the dismissal and prosecution of those responsible for the crisis.  

In a publication in Libya’s outlet. Al-Wasat, Hadima recommended that if such people failed to submit a report that will exonerate them when the Sunday 20 October deadline issued by CAF lapses, “then they must be prosecuted and permanently dismissed.”

Al-Wasat got Hadima’s comments from his post on Facebook and remarked that “this negligence – if it happened – constitutes a betrayal of trust and a lack of awareness of the gravity of responsibility.”

It will be recalled that the Nigerian delegation to the botched match was held up for close to 20 hours at an abandoned Labraq Airport where their aircraft already on descent was dangerously diverted to.

The Nigerians were left without food and water for nearly 20 hours. CAF has already strongly condemned the actions of the Libyans.