Super Eagles Captain Ekong narrates horrible treatment in Libya

The Captain of Super Eagles of Nigeria, William Troost-Ekong has narrated the horrible treatment meted out on the team by the Libyan government ahead of their AFCON 2025 second leg qualifiers match against Libya.

According to a statement by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the delegation of Nigeria to Tuesday’s 2025 AFCON qualifier against Libya as at Monday morning remained at the Al Abraq Airport 12 hours after landing in Libya.

The NFF also said it’s activated plans to fly the team back to Nigeria following the debacle.

Ekong statement on Instagram reads:

“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 Lybian government rescinded our approved landing in Benghazi with no reason.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.

I’ve experienced stuff before playing away in Africa but this is disgraceful behaviour. Even the Tunisian Pilot who thankfully managed to navigate the last minute change to an airport not fit for our plane to land had never seen something like this before.

Upon arrival he tried to find a nearby airport to rest with his crew to be denied at every hotel again under Government instruction. He could sleep there but NO NIGERIAN crew members allowed. They have returned to now sleep on the plane which is parked up.

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. CAF should look at the report and what is happening here. Even if they decide to allow 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” he concluded

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.