Super Eagles’ Libya Ordeal Further Exposes an Ugly Trend in African Soccer

In the case of Nigeria’s national team, the attention spurred swift and decisive action from CAF. Its disciplinary committee handed Libya a hefty $50,000 fine and a walkover defeat. The Super Eagles’ ordeal was widely transmitted, the kind of attention that comes from representing a country that’s notoriously loud on social media, and also being one of the most high-profile teams in African football.

“This is the team that has the expected African Footballer of the Year (Ademola Lookman), it has the current holder of the award (Victor Oshimen), although he was not with [them in Libya]. So, it’s a very popular team,” Steve Dede, former sports journalist and co-host of popular pop culture podcast Loose Talk, tells OkayAfrica.

Previous cases

The Super Eagles case brought renewed interest in a 2022 story where Nigerian club side, Rivers United, raised alarm about the horrible treatment they received when they traveled to Libya to face local club Al-Nasr during the playoff round of the CAF Confederations Cup in 2022. Arriving 48 hours before the match, Rivers United said they were not granted security, were asked to pay for their own transportation, had to train in the dark because the lights at their training facility were turned off, and fans of Al-Nasr trailed them to their hotel to harass them.

In 2016, Enyimba FC of Nigeria faced hostile treatment from fans and local officials during a match against Tunisia’s Etoile Du Sahel. According to Farriel Alaputa, Enyimba’s media officer at the time, the threat of violence was so high that all Enyimba officials were on the bench during the game, as it was the only safe spot, while the referees couldn’t get into the dressing room at half time. CAF subsequently fined the Tunisian side $45,000.

This past September, South African club side Stellenbosch FC traveled to DR Congo to face AS Vita, and their bus from the airport to the hotel was stopped at several roadblocks by police who searched their luggage. This added hours to their travel time and only afforded the team a short recovery time before the game day.

“I remember the FIFA World Cup qualifier between Rwanda and South Africa that was played on a waterlogged pitch, and it affected the performance of the visiting South African team and they lost that game,” Ogunwale says.

Speaking to journalists after that game, South Africa’s coach Hugo Broos complained about the pitch and the travel time for the game. “We’re talking about professional football. And this pitch is not professional. Plus, you don’t make your opponent travel three hours from an airport to their destination. I will not say it’s the reason we lost the game. Not at all. But those things have to change. We’re in 2023,” Broos had said.

The cases of hosts being cunning and/or callous are more prevalent in African club soccer, largely due to lower fanfare amongst African soccer fans, many of whom pay more attention to European leagues. “There is more attention on national team games because there are professionals in foreign leagues coming to represent their countries,” says Oluwajoba Ogunwale, managing editor at Pulse Sports Nigeria. Ogunwale adds that dirty tricks employed by clubs play a big role in the “difficulty [of] away teams getting wins.”

It’s a situation that even trickles down to many local leagues, where the best an away team can hope for is a draw. “Even in Nigeria, we complain about that in local NPFL games where away teams don’t win, sometimes because of the referee facing crowd problems and stuff like that,” Dede says.

Emphasizing fair play, mutual respect and stricter rules

Speaking after the Nigeria-Libya incident, CAF President Patrice Motsepe harped on the need to improve sportsmanship in Africa, acknowledging the lack of mutual respect as a long-running problem. Motsepe used the coronavirus pandemic as an example of when host countries and teams would use the virus as a pretext to bar visiting teams’ top players.

“You tell them that you have just been tested, and they say no, you have COVID. But it’s this lack of sportsmanship that has existed, and we haven’t taken effective action,” Motsepe said. If there are violations of those regulations and rules, we will take action.”

Football in Africa will no doubt benefit from stricter rules to ensure adherence to sportsmanship. “Sports is more enjoyable when there’s fair play, football is better, fans get a better version of the game and it’s better for the overall game,” Dede says, also emphasizing the need for stronger diplomatic ties among African countries.

“Countries should really foster and encourage mutual respect that transcends sports. This will ensure that visiting teams, from either national teams or clubs, are viewed as representatives of those nations. With stronger diplomatic relationships, countries might better understand the importance of fair treatment, and see these teams as ambassadors rather than rivals.”

The punishments handed to Libya were effected by the uproar that accompanied the Super Eagles’ popularity, however, Dede and Ogunwale hope this will serve as a deterrent to hosting countries and clubs, as well as CAF’s model going forward, regardless of the popularity of subsequent cases.

“CAF was left with no choice but to act and this is a really unique decision that will probably shape African football going forward,” Ogunwale says.

Meanwhile, Dede hopes this standard is “applied across other levels, from CAF Confederations Cup to CAF Champions League, to ensure that people and teams are treated with respect. This is a really huge improvement, a huge learning curve for everybody. I expect CAF to be strong on the treatment of visiting teams, not just adjust because something has become popular.”