CAF President Patrice Motsepe has blasted African nations and clubs who take the habit of making visiting teams go through hell for failing to provide adequate transportation, accommodations, or training facilities, but says appropriate action will be taken.
The latest embarrassing incident was when 3-time African champions Nigeria visited Libya for the AFCON 2025 qualifier second leg and made the Super Eagles spend 20 hours at the airport without food or water in a hostage situation; this forced the game to be cancelled.
Motsepe made his stand clear during the CAF 46th Ordinary General Assembly in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
“I have heard too many stories of a football club or national team going to a country. You spend hours at the airport, and they ask you about documents.
“Apparently, during COVID, they would look at who the best players are from your team and say those 10 players have COVID-19,”
“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. If there are violations of those regulations and rules, we will take action.”
” So I just want to repeat, we are proud of those nations that treat visiting teams and football clubs with the respect and dignity that they deserve. But also who treat them in the same way that they want to be treated when they visit those clubs. We are reviewing those laws, and we want to emphasise sportsmanship. ”
“When there was a problem with the Nigerian national team in Libya. I will not comment on that [merits] because there is a proper investigation. But I want to emphasise a principle that we will not tolerate because this is something that has been going on for some time.
“Let me emphasize, forget about the Nigeria and Libya situation because that process of being properly investigated and appropriate action will be taken.”
Both nations are expected to receive the verdict from the continent’s football apex body, Disciplinary Committee, on Wednesday.
