The Deputy Secretary-General of the Libyan Football Federation (LFF), Mohamed Qremida, has confirmed that Ittihad team had officially qualified for the group stage of the Confederation Cup of African Football Federation, (CAF), after its Nigerian rival, Enyimba, withdrew from the return match that was scheduled for Sunday at the Benina Martyrs Stadium in Benghazi.
Qremida said that the Nigerian team had notified the CAF that it would not be able to play Sunday’s match, and thus Ittihad will qualify directly for the group stage, which draw will take place next week.
Last Thursday, CAF rejected Enyimba team’s request to either cancel the match, play it on another ground than Libya, or postpone it to a later date.
Having rejected its request by CAF, Enyimba team sent another request to Ittihad to postpone the match to the 31st of December, saying that 48 hours is not enough to arrange traveling procedures, including visas and airline tickets.
However, Ittihad has also rejected the Nigerian request and said there would be no postponement of the match.
With this qualification, Libya will be for the first time in its history represented by two teams in the group stage of the CAF Confederation Cup, Ittihad and Al-Ahly Tripoli, which previously secured its qualification ticket last Sunday after beating their guests, Stade Malien, in a penalty shootout.
