Victor Ikpeba: Barbaric Libya should not be allowed to play international football

Former African footballer of the Year Victor Ikpeba has told SCORENigeria that Libya should no longer be allowed to feature in international football after the inhumane treatment they subjected the Super Eagles to ahead of a 2025 AFCON qualifier.

“If CAF know their job, Libya ought to be banned from international football,” said Ikpeba, who is part of the Nigerian delegation in Libya for the AFCON qualifier.

“CAF are not mindful of the safety and wellbeing of players across Africa.

“This is a high-risk country and one really wonders who approved for Libya to be playing their games at home.

“I played for the Super Eagles for 10 years and I never experienced what I have in Libya in the last hours.”

He added: “They have a history of maltreating visiting teams.

“They created their own problems in Nigeria and now want to play the victim.

“Nigeria have been good to visitors, we have been good hosts, and so there was no basis for their claims of poor treatment when they came down.”

Ikpeba said he is in full support of the Super Eagles boycotting tomorrow’s AFCON qualifier in Benina near Benghazy.

The team are not safe, those of us travelling with them are also not safe,” he said.

“We were locked up in an abandoned airport for more than 10 hours like hostages.

“The team will call off their bluff and not play this match.”

He further informed SCORENigeria that arrangements are already on for the chartered flight that flew them into Libya to ferry them back to Nigeria today.