Super Eagles captain William Troost-Ekong has threatened that the team will boycott the return leg of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying game against Libya on Tuesday.
The Eagles have been locked up at an airport in Libya for more than 10 hours after their plane was forced to land far from their destination since Sunday, when they arrived in the country for the game. The Libyan authorities directed the private plane carrying Nigerian players and official from landing in Benghazi, the venue of the game, to Al Abaq airport, which is two hours drive from the original destination.
Troost-Ekong alleged that the drama is at the order of the Libyan government.
“12+ hours in an abandoned airport in Lybia after our plane was diverted whilst descending. Lybian government rescinded our approved landing in Benghazi with no reason. They’ve locked the airport gates and left us without phone connection, food or drink. All to play mind games,” he wrote on X on Monday morning.
“This kind of behaviour, 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.
“We respect ourselves and respect our opponents when they are our guests in Nigeria. Mistakes happen but these things on purpose have nothing to do with int. football.”
The 31-year-old Al-Kholood defender further expressed his frustration in a lengthy post on Instagram Story.
“They diverted our plane from its original destination once we started descending into Lybia through their government instruction. Once we landed they’ve kept us in this abandoned airport for over 12 hours now without any provisions,” Troost-Ekong said.
“Even our pilot, a Tunisian who wasn’t locked in like a hostage, came back hours later. He was told in every nearby hotel they would only accept him and none of the Nigerian aircrew members. Are we still talking about international football?!
“We have kept our spirit up, but these are no conditions we will accept when done on purpose. Traveling by road is not safe here, and you can only imagine how they would treat us in the hotel or the food they will try to give us. It was funny before, but as a team we respect ourselves, and under these conditions, we won’t play. @caf_online.”
Libya had falsely claimed they received hostile treatment in Nigeria during the first leg in Uyo without evidence to back up their narrative. The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) debunked the allegation by saying the North Africans made their own travelling arrangements.
“I spoke to the General Secretary of LFF, at length, on Monday, 7th October and he never hinted that his team would be arriving on Tuesday (the following day),” NFF’s Assistant Director (Protocol), Emmanuel Ayanbunmi, said in a rebuttal.
“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.”
