False post claims CAF ordered replay of Nigeria-Libya football match

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After the Nigerian men’s football team was locked up for hours in an isolated Libyan airport ahead of an important match against the North Africans, the Super Eagles flew home in protest without playing the game. Posts circulating on Facebook claim that the Confederation of African Football (CAF), which oversees the sport in Africa, has since ruled a rematch will take place in Nigeria as part of Libya’s punishment for the treatment of their opponents. However, this is false; a disciplinary committee set up by CAF to investigate the incident declared Libya had lost the match by forfeit and awarded the points for a victory to Nigeria.

“BREAKING: The Disciplinary Committee of the Confederationn of African Football (CAF) has bann Libya from hosting Home matches and finedd them $100,000, following maliciousss treatmentt against Nigeriaa Senior Team Super Eagles Nigeria. The second fixture match will take place in Nigeria as part of their punishmentt (sic),” reads a Facebook post shared more than 490 times since it was published on October 23, 2024.

The post then claims Nigeria will be the next nation to host the AFCON (Africa Cup of Nations) tournament.

Screenshot of the false Facebook post taken on November 4, 2024

The AFCON is held every two years and began in 1957 (archived here).

The 35th edition of the competition will be held in Morocco from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026 (archived here).

Qualifiers drama

To qualify for AFCON, 52 teams were drawn into groups, with the top two sides in each group going through. 

Nigeria, Benin, Rwanda and Libya were placed in Group D for their qualifying stage (archived here). The countries are required to play both home and away matches against each other.

The first leg of the qualifier between Nigeria and Libya was played in Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, in early October. Nigeria won by a lone goal (archived here).

The second leg of the match was scheduled to be held in Libya on October 15 but the Nigerian players boycotted the match after their plane was diverted to an abandoned airport for over 20 hours (archived here).

However, the claim that CAF arranged a replay in Nigeria is false.

CAF sanctions

Following the incident, CAF’s disciplinary board released a statement detailing the sanctions against the Libyan Football Federation (archived here).

The disciplinary committee ruled that Libya lost the match by forfeit with a scoreline of 3-0 in favour of Nigeria (archived here).

Screenshot showing match results from Group D, taken from the Eurosport website

It also imposed a fine of $50,000 on the Libyans to be paid within 60 days of notification of the decision.

The committee did not ban Libya from hosting home matches or impose a $100,000 fine on the football federation as claimed.

It also did not mandate that the match should be replayed in Nigeria. AFP Fact Check has sent an email to CAF to request further details on the sanction.

The decision was determined by a vote among CAF’s executive committee.

After the 2025 AFCON in Morocco, the following tournament will take place two years later in 2027 and will be jointly hosted by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania (archived here).

Countries are currently submitting bids to host the 2029 AFCON tournament (archived here).

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