The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has rejected claims of poor treatment on arrival in the country by the captain of Libya’s senior men national team, Faisal Al-Badri.
Nigeria will host Libya in Matchday 3 of 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Friday.
The NFF insisted the Libyan Football Federation created chaos for its own team, the Mediterranean Knights .
Earlier on Thursday, Libya’s captain, Faisal Al-Badri alleged poor treatment by their Nigerian hosts.
According to a Libyan news outlet, Addresslibya , Al-Badri said on his Facebook page that Nigerian officials frustrated what should have been a smooth travelling experience for the Libyan team.
He alleged: “We left the hotel at six in the morning, and the plane took off at nine. The flight took four hours, and thus, we arrived in Nigeria at one in the afternoon, Libyan time.
“Our luggage was searched inside the plane for an hour, and we were also delayed in transportation from one city to another for three hours, even though we travelled on a private plane, and there was an airport close to the city we wanted to play in.
“We later contacted the company responsible for transporting and securing the mission, but they informed us that there was no police patrol at the time, which increased the risk.
“After a long time, three non-air-conditioned minibuses and a police car arrived, in addition to two cars from the Libyan embassy”.
He said out that the mission faced a road full of checkpoints and parking lots, took non-main roads, entered forests, and returned to unpaved roads in complete darkness, “following each other by the lights of vehicles”.
Al-Badri further said that the journey took five hours in an atmosphere full of danger, and the team arrived at the hotel in the late hours of the night, not to mention the hotel’s conditions.
But, NFF’s Assistant Director (Protocol), Mr. Emmanuel Ayanbunmi said that the Libya Football Federation (LFF) only informed the NFF that its team was landing in Port Harcourt, and not Uyo, only three hours to the team’s arrival on Tuesday.
He explained: “I spoke to the General Secretary of LFF, at length, on Monday, 7 October, and he never hinted that his team would be arriving on Tuesday (the following day). He only said he would get back to me, but he never did. On Monday evening, someone sent as an advance party by the LFF called me and said his team would be arriving on Tuesday by Noon. We made all arrangements to receive the team in Uyo on arrival.
“It was only an hour after the team was airborne that he told me the delegation would be landing in Port Harcourt. That disrupted so many things, but we still raced on hurdles to get approval from federal authorities to allow their plane to fly them to Uyo once they concluded immigration formalities in Port Harcourt. Apparently, that would have meant additional cost to the LFF from the charter company, and they didn’t want that, so they preferred to travel from Port Harcourt to Uyo by road”.
Ayanbunmi added that the Libyan delegation jettisoned road transportation arrangements made for them by the NFF and instead hired buses on their own.
“If they travelled on buses that were not air-conditioned, that had nothing to do with the NFF as they hired their own buses. We provided security for them, with men and vehicles in front and behind their buses; so we are unmoved about their complaints and threats”.
