THIS week, in yet another terrible, disheartening and shameful development in African football, the world was treated to the ugly spectacle of a national team’s players detained and stranded at a Libyan airport. This time around, it was members of the South Sudan national football team, the Bright Stars, who were the victims of the accustomed cruel treatment of club and national sides on the continent. According to reports, the team landed at the Benina International Airport in Benghazi, Libya, on Sunday, March 23, for its 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Sudan scheduled for Tuesday, March 25, only to face horrors. Via its X handle, the South Sudan Football Association (SSFA) reported that its delegation was stranded for three hours at the airport due to the absence of representatives from the Sudanese Football Association (SFA), who were expected to manage the reception. Worse still, the Libyan migration authorities allegedly seized the passports of the South Sudanese delegation, leaving it in intense agony.
In the official complaint it addressed to the world football governing body, FIFA, and the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF), the SSFA wrote: “The South Sudan Football Association (SSFA) wishes to express its deep disappointment in the Sudan Football Association regarding the recent events surrounding our National Team, Bright Stars. Today, our team embarked on its journey from Cairo, Egypt, at 8:00 am, with the hope of smoothly transitioning to Benghazi, Libya. Upon arrival at 10:12 am, the team anticipated meeting a representative from the Sudanese side to facilitate its entry into Libya. Unfortunately, this expectation was not met, and our team found itself stranded at the airport for a staggering three hours. This situation became even more distressing as the Libyan migration authorities seized our players’ passports, citing the absence of our coordinators as the reason for this action. Despite the lengthy wait, no representative from the Sudan Football Association appeared to assist our team.
“After three long hours of uncertainty, the migration officers ultimately decided to allow the team to exit the airport, albeit without passports, which remained with the authorities as a guarantee. This experience not only caused significant distress for our players but also raised serious concerns about the lack of support and coordination from the Sudanese side. It is crucial for football associations to uphold their commitments to one another, especially when it comes to the welfare of players who represent their nations. We hope that moving forward, the Sudan Football Association will recognise the importance of communication and cooperation, ensuring that such unfortunate incidents do not occur in the future. As a result of the unfortunate events from the hands of the Sudan Football Association, most of the players are currently sick, others extremely tired and others mentally affected. As a team representing a sovereign country, we feel such treatment is disrespectful and unacceptable. We kindly appeal to FIFA and CAF for accountability.”
This incident bears callous resemblance to the one that involved Nigeria’s Super Eagles in October last year. There was global outrage when the Eagles were stranded for over 16 hours at the Al-Abraq Airport in Libya ahead of an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier. Having faced flight diversions and endured lack of food and water, the exhausted and traumatised Eagles players, who even had to endure cruel mockery by local officials and security stationed at the airport, eventually decided to boycott the match. And although the Libyan Football Federation went to ridiculous extents to put up a defence, including making bogus allegations against the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), CAF took serious objection to the incident. It fined Libya $50,000 and awarded Nigeria a 3-0 victory.
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It is distressing that a football association, the SFA, chose to tread the same route that Libya and the Mediterranean Knights took last year. The cruel treatment of the Bright Stars was made worse by the fact that the team that tried to gain unfair advantage had absolutely no reason to do so. Ahead of the match, Sudan had a fine record in the group that has DR Congo, Senegal, Togo and Mauritania as the other contenders. It had 11 points while South Sudan sat at the bottom of the table with only two points from five matches. And even though Sudan finally settled for a 1-1 draw with South Sudan at the match played at the Benina Martyrs Stadium, Benghazi, on Tuesday, allegations of foul play are not likely to disappear anytime soon. Both FIFA and CAF must take a very serious look at this incident and save the beautiful game from getting into further disrepute on the continent. Although national pride and emotions are often implicated in a win, a football game is ideally only just a game. It is not war, except on a psychological plane; it needs not descend into a game of brutality in which visiting teams are treated worse than even animals ever should.
To be sure, the use of “home advantage” to win matches, even when not really playing on national soil as in this case, is a long affliction in African football. Across the continent, especially in North Africa, it is not impossible to see a visiting team being deliberately driven aimlessly around town for the sole purpose of ensuring that it arrives too late at the designated stadium for an upcoming match, and thus has to face heavy sanctions, including forfeiting the match. Practices such as denying a visiting team access to a good field for its warm-up activities, turning the hotel where the team is lodged into a raucous atmosphere with the aim of denying the players of quality sleep, and outright brutalization of the visitors and their supporters are routine, and it is time CAF curbed them through severe sanctions. Football on the African continent has enough critics motivated by racism already: there’s no need to give the naysayers further ammunition through disgraceful and unsportsmanlike actions.
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