Libyan CAF Executive Committee member Abdul Hakim Al-Shalmani has voiced his disappointment over the testimony provided by Captain Abdellatif Merchergui, the Tunisian pilot who flew Nigeria’s delegation to the recent Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match, Soccernet.ng reports.
Al-Shalmani has accused Merchergui, who serves as Acting Head of Flight Operations at ValueJet, of giving what he described as “false and slanderous” evidence favouring Nigeria in the dispute, threatening legal action in response.
Merchergui was presented by Nigeria as a key witness in the CAF hearing following the disrupted October qualifier between Libya and Nigeria.
According to reports by Libya Akhbar, Al-Shalmani argued that Merchergui’s testimony showed bias toward Nigeria and failed to maintain the diplomatic integrity expected between neighbouring countries Libya and Tunisia.
“What the Nigerians are trying to portray as injustice on our part is in fact an attempt to cover up the truth, as the testimony presented was completely false,” Al-Shalmani stated, promising to file an official memorandum against the pilot.
Al-Shalmani also claimed Nigeria had taken advantage of the high profile of its international players to sway public opinion.
He accused the Nigerian team of amplifying the story to present themselves as victims of Libyan hostility, saying,
“Nigeria latched on to the fame of its star-studded squad to sway global support for the Super Eagles.”
Further complicating matters, Al-Shalmani denied media reports suggesting a decision on the case had already been issued.
He clarified that a Zoom meeting had been held where Libya submitted the necessary documentation to the CAF Disciplinary Committee, which is now reviewing the case.
“We have assigned a highly qualified lawyer to manage this file,” he stated, adding that Libya will appeal should the outcome not favour them.
The Libyan Football Federation has indicated it is prepared to challenge any unfavourable decision from the hearing.
This Libyan LFF are completely bunch of blood tasting bastards.
These Libyan FF are delusional,, they have been so caught up in their war torn country issues that a simple act of decency erodes and foreign too them
These Libyans are more evil and terrible than one can ever imagine. Just because you allegedly had logistics issues/some delays at the PH Int. Airport in Nigeria, which were as a result of not flying direct to Uyo as expected and poor communications between them and their host FA (NFF), they decided to put the entire lives of the Nigerian delegation in danger by diverting a flight that was already on a descent to land to a deserted no-man’s land airport which is several miles away from the destination airport -this is even against the advice of the piloting crew. The plane could have crash-landed and everone on board could have perished in the process. They could also have been taken hostage by rival rebel/war factions as well. And as if those were not enough, they team was left with no food and water for close to 20 hours. This is not a mere retaliation but pure evil ( a retaliation should have been mild and acceptable if they must have one, like delaying the Eagles too for few hours at the planned airport). Funny enough, instead of the stupid people involved in this show of shame to apologise to the pilot for endangering his live and those of everyone on board, they are threatening to sue him. If I were the pilot, I would sue their as*es and cash out big time from them since I have enough pieces of evidence against them. Libya, and their bad rubbish that stinks to high heavens!
why on earth would you even go to either Libya or even nigeria to go and play soccer both countries are very dangerous and what was nigeria expecting after what happened to the Libyan team In nigeria where you expecting to be welcomed with Roses or what nigeria supposed to expect even the worse both countries treated each other bad even the south african team suffered the same in nigeria so why are Nigerians complaining is just that Libya added a bit more volume so nigeria suppose not to start know that when this countries avengers they don’t do it a bit they give you 10 times your dose nigeria is even lucky they came back alive look at what happened to the team of zambia look at what happened to the team of congo nigeria things their juju in strong you haven’t see anything both countries are very bad
Libya athority stop insunuation to our pilot, becouse he save lives. that is the truth.
So practically he was supposed to lie in favour of Libya because he’s Tunisian and Arab. That CAF fine is considerably low. That act was more of kidnapping and a corresponding fine should have been awarded.
Just goes on to show how lowly those Libya people think of others, and the extent to which they can descend in search of vendetta.
Those were pre meditated acts of wickedness and pure evil fueled by extreme prejudice.
LFF SHOULD take accountability for their actions and dance to the music orchestrated by their own sadistic minds.
I rili think the sanctions by CAF was just too mild, I mean what Libya did was attempted murder and kidnap, there’s no other explanation to this,.they should’ve been banned from football entirely, they are so evil and wicked, that’s an act of terrorism,.and now they are angry with the pilot for not taking sides with them to help cover their evil,..