Botched AFCON 2025 Qualifier: House Committee praises CAF’s Decision
By Kingsley Ohens
Chairman, House of Representatives committee on sports, Hon. Kabiru Ahmadu, has hailed the decision of Confederation of African Football (CAF) on the botched Matchday 4 encounter of the 2025 AFCON qualification series scheduled to be played by Libya and Nigeria in Benina on 15th October, saying the body has protected the dignity of African football by award victory to Nigeria.
CAF’s disciplinary board in their ruling released on Saturday sanctioned the Libyan Football Federation (LFF) by awarding all three points to the Super Eagles and fined Libya USD 50,000.
CAF found the LFF in breach of multiple regulations, leading to a forfeit loss for Libya in the match against the Super Eagles originally scheduled for October 15 in Benghazi.
Honourable Ahmadu who represents Gusau/Tsafe Federal constituency of Zamfara in the House of Representative said CAF’s decision is definitely inline with the spirit of Fair play and must be commended.
“I think CAF has sent a big message to every country in Africa with their decision and I expect this to be the last time we will see such a disgraceful act from any Home Country,” he said.
The Super Eagles players decided to boycott the fixture following maltreatment by the Libyan authorities, who detained the Nigerian delegation to the game for over 16 hours without food, water and access to communications.
The Libyans had earlier diverted the delegation’s flight from the earlier scheduled Benghazi to Al Abraq Airport, which, according to the Nigerian team’s Tunisian pilot, did not have the required navigation facilities for such flights.
Following the verdict by CAF, the Super Eagles are now on 10 points while Libya remain bottom on just one point after four games.q
Meanwhile, the Eagles will take on Benin Republic and Rwanda on match day 5 and 6 in November.
