Former Nigeria international, Ike Shorunmu has called for heavy sanctions against the Libya Football Federation following the poor treatment of the Super Eagles during the trip to Libya for their AFCON Qualifier.

The Nigerian national team was left stranded at Al Abaq Airport for over 13 hours after an unexpected flight diversion on Sunday.

During this time, the team reportedly had no access to food, water, or internet services.

This situation ultimately forced the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) to withdraw from the scheduled match, which was set to take place on Tuesday, October 15.

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Reacting to the incident, Shorunmu expressed his dismay and called for severe penalties against the Libyan authorities for what he described as “extreme dark arts.”

“What happened in Libya was unfortunate. There is no way the boys could have played that game, so I think it was the best decision to pull out,” Shorunmu told Brila.net.

“This shows we still have a lot of work to do in developing football in Africa. We’ve experienced similar treatment from North African teams before, but nothing as extreme as this.”

He went on to urge the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to impose strict sanctions on the Libyan Football Federation to deter such behavior in the future.

Ike Shorunmu, Nigeria goalkeeping coach (Photo by Nigel French – PA Images via Getty Images)

“Football is a unifying sport; they can’t keep behaving like this all the time,” he said.

“I’m just happy the boys returned safely. That’s the most important thing,” Shorunmu concluded.