By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Few hours to today’s (Tuesday) 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers return leg match between Libya and Nigeria there are indications that Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may not have lodged an official complaint to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
The Nigerian football ruling body, NFF, is expected to state unambiguously the reason for it to pull out the Super Eagles from the match.
Prompt News reports that the return leg match is billed for Martyrs of February Stadium in Benghazi by 20:00 hours.
Prompt News enquiries have revealed that as the time of filling this report, the NFF has not submitted an official written petition to CAF headquarters in Cairo, Egypt detailing the reasons Nigeria’s senior football team will not play the match in Benghazi later today.
It was further gathered that what the NFF hierarchy have submitted to CAF is far short of the evidence of videos and pictures without referring to the relevant CAF Competitions law which will help the West African country to win her case in CAF relevant organs.
“As at this morning in Cairo, Egypt, it is clear that the NFF has not submitted a well articulated petition to CAF detailing the ordeal of the national team of Nigeria in Libya and also quote the relevant part of the CAF Rule and Regulations the Libyan hosts breached to enable CAF deal with the issues raised.
“What they (NFF) have sent to CAF are video clips and photos of whatever happened at Al Abraq International Airport in Libya and those alone cannot be called formal petition to CAF.
“The petition has to be written by legal minds and quoting the CAF Rule and Regulations which the Libyans breached to warrant Nigeria pulling out of the scheduled match today in Benghazi”, our sources said on the condition of anonymity.
Should NFF fail to do the needful before the at 8 pm local time, Nigeria runs the risk of losing the three points and three goals to Libya for not showing up in Benghazi for the match which would have qualified the Super Eagles for the 2025 AFCON in Morocco if they picked the three points at stake.
READ ALSO:
- The World Is Hard, But Nigeria Is Harder — Timaya
- Trump campaign accuses UK’s Labour Party of election interference
- Reps Committee on Sports laud Tinubu over scrapping of Sports Ministry
- Police hand 15 rescued victims of trafficking to NAPTIP in Kano
- Tanker explosion: Jigawa purchases N60m food items for victims