At the microphone of Canal+ Sport Afrique, the coach of Benin, Gernot Rohr, gave a terrible testimony on the ordeal experienced by his team after its draw against Libya (0-0), in Tripoli, during the CAN 2025 qualifiers.
In more than fifty years of career, as a player then a coach, Gernot Rohr (71 years old) had probably never seen this. Monday evening, after their draw obtained away to Libya (0-0), synonymous for them with qualification for CAN 2025, the Benin players and their coach were victims of various beatings and violence.
“After the match, there was first bottle throwing and one of my assistants was chased by people who wanted to hit him in the tunnel. We were locked in the locker room for an hour and a half. When we got there went out, there were very regrettable events, we saw that this country was not yet safe. The police hit us!”, testified Gernot Rohr, very marked, at the microphone of Canal+ Sport Afrique.
“When they entered the bus, we thought it was to keep us safe, but they took out their batons to hit us. We were injured, some boys were targeted, like my assistant of Tunisian origin , who has a large hematoma on his shoulder. Our security service and a few players were affected. It’s really regrettable,” said the former coach of the Girondins de Bordeaux and FC Nantes, who has been in charge of the Beninese selection since. FEBRUARY 2023.
Already a precedent with Nigeria
According to his account, “the match itself went well enough, but what happened afterward was catastrophic.” It was only after a long wait at the airport that Gernot Rohr and his players were able to leave Libya, aboard a plane made available by the government of Benin. The former Brestois and current Augsburg striker, Steve Mounié, spoke to him of a “war zone”. “This Libya team, this country and its supporters did not respect us at the start of the match. They whistled our national anthem. We wanted to qualify, we did it with difficulty. Benin will be at the CAN , we can be proud,” reacted the Guépards center forward.
Last October, still as part of qualifying for the African Cup of Nations, the Nigeria selection found itself stranded in an abandoned airport in Libya. Locked up “like hostages” for around ten hours, without water or food, the Super Eagles refused to play their match. The disciplinary commission of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) then gave them victory on the green carpet.
