The president of Confederation of African Football (CAF) Patrice Motsepe has hinted at stiff punishment to Libya for the manner which they conducted themselves leading to the suspension of their AFCON qualifiers game against Nigeria in Benghazi, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
CAF suspended the AFCON qualifiers game between Libya and Nigeria after the Nigerian team was left stranded at the airport 16 hours upon arrival for the game, with Libyan authority instructing their flight away from it’s initial landing base to an abandoned airport, 300km away from the city of the game.
Speaking at the 46th Ordinary General Assembly of the football body , Motsepe said the practice of teams treating their fellow teams poorly upon arrival is a huge concern, referencing the Libya vs Nigeria game but said a final decision will be taken by the disciplinary committee of the body.
“There’s a reason why my phone is open, let me tell you why I refer to that. It’s because When there was this problem with the Nigerian national team In Libya. I will not comment on that because there’s a proper investigation, but I want to emphasize that as a principle that we will not tolerate. Because this is something that has been going on for quite some time with not just our national team I need to emphasize that.
” Forget about the Nigeria vs Libya situation because that process is being properly investigated and an appropriate action will be taken.
” I’ve read too many stories of football club or a national team goes to a country. You spend hours at the airport, and they ask you about documents that won’t exist and apparently during COVID, they would look into the best players from your national team and say those 10 players have got COVID and you say, but we’ve just been tested.
“No, no, no, they’ve got COVID, but it’s this lack of sportsmanship that has existed and we haven’t taken effective action. So I just want to repeat, we are proud of those nations. That countries treat visiting national teams and visiting football clubs with the respect and dignity that they deserve. Also portray them in the same way they want to be treated when they visit those countries.
” So I just want to repeat, we’re reviewing those laws and we want to emphasize sportsmanship when the national team from another country visits or a football club visits they get the respect they deserve and if there are violations of those regulations and those rules we will take action”.
