Why Nigeria’s footballers are boycotting their AFCON game against Libya

Nigeria’s football players have said they are going to boycott Tuesday’s African Cup Of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in Libya after being stranded at an airport in the country overnight, in what the team’s captain called “mind games”.

The Super Eagles squad was expected to land at Benghazi Airport on Sunday, but as the charter flight was descending, it was diverted to Al Abraq, 200km away, with no alternative transport offered, the Nigerian Football Federation said.

Captain William Troost-Ekong said no reason was given for the change, adding that the airport’s gates had been locked and the group had been left “without phone connection, food or drink. All to play mind games”.

But after being stranded there for more than 16 hours, he said he and the team had “decided that we will not play this game,” adding that “mistakes happen, but these things on purpose have nothing to do with international football”.

After the party arrived home on Monday evening, he posted another update, saying “back home, safe and sound” and other social media posts showed them celebrating in the airport in Kano, in northern Nigeria.

The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) said it regretted the flight diversion but suggested on X it may have been down to “routine air traffic control protocols, security checks, or logistical challenges”.

Pictures posted online by the players showed some of them lying on airport seats, their luggage beside them, and no other passengers in sight. In other pictures, players were sleeping.

Nigeria’s star striker Victor Osimhen, who was ruled out of the game with an injury, had no doubt it was a deliberate move, accusing their opponents of trying to “weaken and ruin the morale” of his teammates.

Osimhen compared it on Instagram to a “hostage situation”, advising his colleagues to return home, as they are not “criminals or prisoners”.

On Monday the LFF said in a statement on X its team faced similar issues as they arrived in Nigeria for Friday’s first leg in Uyo, which Nigeria won 1-0.

Shortly before landing at an airport close to the match venue, the LFF said, airport officials told the pilot to head to a different airport around 350km away.

It said they were treated “unprofessionally” by airport security staff and had to travel “through forest and jungle roads in the middle of the night without any security escort”.

Cars were hired “to take staff and team supplies from the airport we arrived at to the hotel in the other city where we stayed”.

Libya’s captain Faisal al Badri said they were delayed “from one city to another” for three hours after their bags were searched.

Nigeria’s Football Federation denied the claims.

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The country’s sports minister John Owan Enoh said he had instructed the soccer federation to send a formal complaint to African football chiefs, saying in a statement it needed to be “on record and thoroughly addressed”.

The Confederation Africaine de Football (CAF) said in a statement it has contacted authorities in both countries after learning the Nigerian squad was “stranded in disturbing conditions for several hours at an airport that they were allegedly instructed to land by the Libyan authorities”.

It has referred the matter to its disciplinary board to investigate and “appropriate action will be taken” if its rules were broken, it said.

Among the players in Nigeria’s squad are Ademola Lookman, who scored a hat trick for Atalanta in the Europa League final last season and is on the Ballon d’Or shortlist, and Victor Boniface, a striker for German champion Bayer Leverkusen.

Premier League players Ola Aina, Calvin Bassey, Alex Iwobi, Taiwo Awoniyi, and Wilfred Ndidi were involved in Friday’s game.