Football returns to Libya
Both the national team and the domestic league have returned to some semblance of normality in 2021 after years of turbulence
The shackles of their international ban lifted, it is now full steam ahead for football in Libya, hoping to profit from a period of some normality after a decade of turbulence.
The North African country has been in the grips of civil strife since the revolution that toppled Muammar Al Gaddafi and left a country torn apart by disparate warlords battling over the considerable oil spoils. A United Nations-facilitated peace process established a unity government that has brought relative peace and quiet over the last year, but it has a tenuous hold on power and there remain rebel forces that threatened the order. But after years of isolation there has been no time to waste for Libyan football, whose Premier League is back in action, albeit with 24 teams divided into eastern and western zones.
The last properly completed season was the 2017-18 campaign and even then, with the security situation fragile and travel both dangerous and difficult, clubs were divided into four geographical zones followed by an American-style final four-team play-off.
Throughout, Libya kept competing in the two annual continental club competitions, sending clubs into the African Champions League and the African Confederation Cup even though they had to host their “home” matches in either neighbouring Egypt or Tunisia.
And, not only competing, but also achieving enough results to twice lift Libya’s ranking into the top 12 of the CAF’s club coefficient, allowing two representatives in both competitions.
This season Al Ahli Benghazi got to the group phase of the Confederation Cup, after dropping down from the Champions League, and at the end of their campaign finally got to host foreign opponents at home.
Their ban was lifted earlier in the year and the Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in March against neighbours Tunisia marked the first home game in seven years for the national side. Muaid Ellafi scored first for the hosts, but any hopes of a fairy tale at the Martyrs of February Stadium in Benghazi quickly evaporated as Tunisia responded without any sense of sentimentality and went onto a 5-2 triumph.
That game was followed one week later by a visit from South African club Orlando Pirates to Al Ahli Benghazi. “The city looked battered and full of bullet holes and damage but there was never any sense of any danger for us,” said Pirates general manager Floyd Mbhele.
Enyimba of Nigeria followed but Al Ahli did not make it into the last eight, having already exceeded expectation.
But in the new season Ahli Benghazi lead their group, unbeaten after their opening 13 games, while Libya’s most successful club Al Ittihad, top the western zone table, also unbeaten, as are their great rivals Al Ahli Tripoli in second place.
Many clubs have the financial muscle to bring in both foreign coaches and imports from elsewhere in Africa, although not of the same quality of personnel that go to clubs in nearby Egypt, Tunisia or Morocco.
Infrastructure, however, is limited. Many stadiums, damaged by the conflict, are in need of repair before they can be used again.
In June, veteran Spanish coach Javier Clemente returned for a second spell in charge of the national team, and immediately found there is much work to be done. In mid-June they failed to win for a ninth match in a row – suffering a 1-0 defeat to Sudan in Qatar during the Arab Cup preliminaries.
In September, the group phase of World Cup qualifiers belatedly gets underway and there will be home advantage for Libya against Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s Gabon. They also face Angola and Egypt, who will be the favourites, in their group, with only the winner through to the decisive play-offs.
Clemente, former coach of Spain and Cameroon, is something of a mythical figure in the North African country. He was also in charge in 2014 when Libya won the African Nations Championship in South Africa – the uniquely African competition for quasi-national teams made up of home-based players only. It was also done at a time of huge insecurity in Libya and much anguish for players
The last properly completed Libyan Premier League season was the 2017-18 campaign
who spent months away from home.
The last couple of years have seen a trickle of Libyan players head to more established leagues, something unthinkable during Gaddafi’s years as supreme leader. Ali Musrati is their talisman, scoring against Leicester City in the Europa League last season for Portugal’s Braga. They have also found players from the exile community like Manchester-born Ahmad Benali. On these foundations, it is hoped, a bright future can be built.