Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has announced that the Super Eagles players have resolved not play their 2025 AFCON qualifier against Group D rivals Libya at the Martyrs of February Stadium, which was due Tuesday, October 15, after they were held hostage upon arrival at the airport.
According to the NFF, the Super Eagles players and officials were left with no food, water or internet connection at the Al Abraq Airport for more than 12 hours after their flight earlier scheduled to land at Benghazi airport was diverted to the small airport just one hour before the arrival.
Nigeria captain Troost-Ekong and Bayer Leverkusen are among players who slammed Libyan authorities for treating them unfairly before the entire group decided not to play the game.
Reports in Nigeria indicate that the Libyan Football Federation also failed to provide a reception team or even transport the team from the airport to their hotel, which is reportedly three hours away from Tuesday’s match in Benghazi.
The players were forced to sleep on the hard floor of the Al Abraq airport and remained locked inside the compound by security guards.
"At this point we have called for our Nigerian Government to intervene and rescue us. As the captain, together with the team, we have decided that we will not play this game," Troost-Ekong tweeted on his X account on Monday.
"CAF should look at the report and what is happening here. Even if they decide to allow this kind of behavior, let them have the points.”
Troost-Ekong said that he and his teammates experienced bad reception in Libya ‘all to play mind games.’
"I’ve experienced stuff before playing away in Africa but this is disgraceful behavior,” he said.
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The incident comes days after Libya captain Faisal Al-Badri also claimed that his team experienced poor treatment upon arrival in Nigeria before their 1-0 loss to the Super Eagles on Friday, October 11.
Al Badri claimed that Nigerian officials frustrated what should have been a smooth travelling experience for the Libyan team.
However, the NFF dismissed the claims, saying that the Libyan Football Federation created chaos for its own team.
Nigeria are top of Group D with 7 points after 3 games while Libya are bottom of the group with one point.