NEW DELHI: The Nigerian nationwide soccer workforce discovered themselves in a distressing state of affairs as they had been reportedly stranded at an airport in Libya, devoid of meals and water, mere 24 hours earlier than their essential match towards the host nation.
Libya, nonetheless, expressed their discontent, alleging that they had been subjected to ‘poor therapy’ throughout their go to to Nigeria.As tensions escalate forward of the return leg, Nigeria‘s gamers have been left exasperated by their present predicament, with Leicester Metropolis midfielder Wilfred Ndidi going so far as to recommend that they had been being held ‘hostage’ by their hosts.
Within the earlier encounter between the 2 sides, which happened in Nigeria as a part of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers, the Tremendous Eagles emerged victorious with a slender 1-Zero margin, because of a late purpose from Fissayo Dele-Bashiru.
In accordance with media studies, the Nigerian gamers and workforce officers had been just about held hostage for over 12 hours at Al Abraq Worldwide Airport, which was about three hours away by highway to Benghazi, the venue of Tuesday’s match towards Libya.
The airplane, carrying each gamers and officers, was unexpectedly rerouted from its unique vacation spot of Benghazi to Al Abraq, a smaller airport primarily used for hajj operations, whereas in mid-flight.
Upon touchdown at Al Abraq, the Nigerian workforce discovered themselves stranded with none help from the Libyan Soccer Federation. The host workforce uncared for to make the required preparations to move the workforce to Benghazi, leaving them in a tough place.
The car organized for the journey by the officers of Tremendous Eagles was additionally not allowed to entry the airport additional compounding the challenges confronted by the Nigerian workforce.
Because of this, the Nigerian workforce withdrew from their Africa Cup of Nations qualifier towards Libya on Monday, in line with captain William Troost-Ekong.
