"Inhumane Treatment": Stranded In Airport For 20 Hours, Nigeria Football Team Boycott AFCON Qualifier vs Libya

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) confirmed Monday that their national team had returned home after alleged "inhumane treatment" in Libya ahead of a 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier. "The Nigeria delegation departed the Al-Abraq Airport at exactly 15.05 hours, bound for the city of Kano, and onwards to the Federal Capital, Abuja," the NFF said in a statement. NFF director of Communications, Ademola Olajire, outlined in a 20-point statement the team's "ordeal on Libyan soil", saying the "keenly-anticipated match" had been "relegated to a fiasco by Libyan federal authorities and Football Federation".

The Nigerian team were held at an abandoned airport in Libya for more than 20 hours after their chartered flight landed Sunday.

The Super Eagles had been due to land in Benghazi but their plane was instead diverted to Al Abraq, 230km (143 miles) away from their intended destination.

A formal complaint by Nigeria has been sent to the Confederation of African football (CAF) whose disciplinary board is now investigating the incident.

Captain William Troost-Ekong had said the team would not make a three-hour bus ride from Al-Abraq to Benina, where the qualifier was scheduled to be played on Tuesday, for safety reasons.

"As the team captain together with the team we have decided that we will NOT play this game," he posted on social media.

"Let them have the points.

"We will not accept to travel anywhere by road here even with security it's not safe. We can only imagine what the hotel or food would be like given to us if we continued."

CAF said they viewed "the disturbing and unacceptable experiences of the Nigerian National Football Team at an airport in Libya in a very serious light".

The statement added that CAF had been