The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has awarded the Super Eagles of Nigeria three points and fined the Libya Football Federation (LFF) the sum of $50,000 without the option of appeal, following the botched Africa qualifiers between Nigeria and Libya.
In the latest development, a five man disciplinary committee signed by CAF’s Chairperson of CAF Disciplinary Board, Ousmane Kane said the decision was taken by the committee as a result of the inhuman treatment meted out to the Super Eagles by the LFF.
According to CAF, The Disciplinary Committee decided that, “The Libya Football Federation is found to have breached Article 31 of the African, Cup of Nations Regulations as well as Articles 82 and 151 of the CAF Disciplinary Code, and that the match No.87 Libya v. Nigeria of the CAF African Cup of Nations Qualifiers 2025 (scheduled to be played on 15 October 2024 in Benghazi) is declared lost by forfeit by Libya (by a score of 3-0).”
The LFF is expected to pay the fine of $50,000 within 60 days of notification of the present decision.
Recall that the Super Eagles players and officials were stranded and held for hours at a Libyan airport and denied access to food and the internet prior to their AFCON qualifier against Libya.
It took multiple diplomatic efforts and criticism from social media users before the Nigerian team was allowed to leave Libya.
With the recent CAF decision, it means Nigeria is more poised to qualify for the 2025 AFCON, with 2 matches remaining.
The Super Eagles are now on 10 points from 4 matches in their group, second placed Benin Republic has 6 points while Rwanda has 5 points. At the bottom of the group is Libya with only 1 point which makes them automatically out of the running for qualifying for the AFCON tournament.
