Libya FA hires a lawyer from Tunisia to appeal a decision made by the CAF

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) made a decision that gave Nigeria a 3-0 win in their rescheduled qualifier for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The Libya Football Federation (LFF) has publicly appealed this decision.

The Libya Review reports that the LFF has hired Tunisian lawyer Ali Abbas to present its case in an effort to fight the match loss and the $50,000 fine that comes with it.

There is a disagreement because Nigeria has to make the tough trip to Benghazi for the second match of the AFCON qualifier against Libya. The original date for the game was October 15.

The Super Eagles’ flight was sent to Al Abraq Airport, which is about 300 kilometers from Benghazi, because there were no Libyan officials nearby to help. This caused an 18-hour delay.

Because Libya wasn’t organized or able to handle logistics well, CAF canceled the road game after Nigeria beat Libya 1-0 at home on October 11.

The CAF Disciplinary Committee, which was led by Ousmane Kane, made a ruling on October 26 that Libya had broken Articles 82 and 151 of the CAF Disciplinary Code as well as Article 31 of the AFCON Regulations.

Nigeria got three goals and three points after CAF agreed that Libya would not play in the game that had to be postponed.

The Libyan Federation was also told it had to pay a $50,000 fine within 60 days. Because of this, the LFF is strongly against what it calls a “unfair” ruling that puts Libya at the bottom of Group D with only one point.

A statement from Libyan media says that the LFF thinks this move will hurt their hopes of qualifying.

Nigeria only needs one more point to make sure they make it to the AFCON finals in Morocco. The outcome of this appeal could have a big effect on the group results.