The captain of the senior men’s national team of Libya, Faisal Al-Badri, has denied claims that he was mistreated upon arriving in Nigeria, according to the Nigeria Football Federation.
According to NFF, the Libyan Football Federation was the one responsible for the chaos that befell their squad, the Mediterranean Knights.
The Libya Federation only notified the NFF three hours prior to the team’s arrival on Tuesday that it would be arriving in Port Harcourt rather than Uyo, according to NFF Assistant Director (Protocol), Mr. Emmanuel Ayanbunmi.
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“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).
“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.
“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.”
Ayanbunmi continued, “The Libyan delegation hired buses on their own and abandoned the road transport plans that the NFF had provided for them.”
“If they travelled on buses that were not air-conditioned, that had nothing to do with the NFF as they hired their buses.
“We provided security for them, with men and vehicles in front and behind their buses, so we are unmoved about their complaints and threats.”