Gernot Rohr actually has every reason to be happy right now: he has qualified for the 2025 Africa Cup with the Benin national team. But the coach doesn’t speak well of the last qualifying game in Libya.
Gernot Rohr has already experienced a lot. The 71-year-old, who was born in Mannheim, was once a three-time French champion with Girondins Bordeaux as a player before pursuing a coaching career after his playing career. This has taken him to adventurous positions over the past 15 years: he was national coach in Niger, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Nigeria, and he has held this position in Benin, West Africa, since the beginning of this year.
But what he experienced with his team at the end of November in the last qualifying game for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations was too much even for the highly experienced German-French player: “A disgrace for African football”is what he calls what happened to him and his people in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
Escalation after the final whistle
It was the last qualifying game and there was a lot at stake. Libya would have needed a win to qualify, while Benin needed a draw to book their ticket to the finals in Morocco as second in the group behind Nigeria. After a hard-fought 90 minutes the score was 0-0. Benin had done it.
“We were attacked and beaten by the opposing coaches after the final whistle. Then we were locked in the locker room. When we finally sat in the team bus, armed police officers came into the vehicle and physically attacked us,” reports Rohr.
“Forces of order” are deployed National player go
Together, his country’s players eventually managed to force the “law enforcement officers” armed with batons out of the bus. “It is urgently necessary for the African Football Association CAF to react here and no longer allow qualifying games in countries with such an unstable political situation.”demands Rohr.
The situation in Libya is still confusing four years after the end of the civil war. The country has been politically divided into two camps since 2021. The internationally recognized government of national unity under Prime Minister Abdelhamid Damitba in Tripoli controls the northwest of the country with the help of powerful militias. Their sphere of influence is largely secured by Turkish military bases in the region.
Violence and unrest characterize the picture in Libya
In contrast, a powerful militia led by leader Khalifa Haftar controls the east, center and south of the country with the help of a Russian military presence. It’s about money and natural resources, and unrest and fights over the distribution of crude oil revenues are constantly flaring up. The population lives in constant fear of excessive violence breaking out.
The fact that official football games are taking place in the country in this mixed situation is absurd, and not just in Rohr’s eyes.
Nigeria’s team was locked up at the airport
Just a month earlier there had been a similar escalation in Libya with Nigeria’s national team. She was locked up and held for hours in a deserted airport. Without food or drinks, without the possibility of communicating with the outside world. “I’ve been at the airport for almost 13 hours now, no food, no WiFi, no place to sleep”reported Leverkusen professional Victor Boniface at the time.
The team then refused to play in the qualifying game in Tripoli and returned home after being “liberated”.
The African Football Confederation CAF subsequently decided that the game would be declared lost to Libya 0-3. The Libyan Football Association was also ordered to pay a fine of $50,000. This punishment apparently failed to bring those responsible in Tripoli to their senses.