The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has officially cancelled the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier match between Libya and Nigeria, ending Libya’s hopes of winning three points without playing.
Libya, currently at the bottom of Group D with just one point from three matches, was looking to win by default to improve their chances of qualifying for the 2025 AFCON in Morocco.
A win would have brought their total to four points, allowing them to stay in the race with Benin (6 points) and Rwanda (5 points).
The problem started when Nigeria decided to boycott the match, reportedly due to the poor treatment of the Super Eagles delegation when they arrived in Libya.
The Libyan team wanted to convince match officials to award them three points because Nigeria did not show up.
However, CAF stopped this from happening, stating on its website: “The TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Qualifier fixture between Libya and Nigeria will not take place as scheduled tonight. The matter will be referred to the competent CAF bodies.”
CAF has set up a nine-member committee to look into what happened that led to the cancellation. This committee will check if Libya fulfilled its responsibilities as the host and if Nigeria’s boycott was allowed under CAF rules.
