FIFA, the International Federation of Football Association, decided yesterday, Tuesday, to lift a ban which has prevented Libya hosting football matches . . .[restrict]for the last two and a half years.
“FIFA has emailed us, and confirmed that the ban has been lifted,” Anwar Al-Tashani, the president of the Libyan football federation, told the Libya Herald yesterday.
The move follows the lifting, three weeks ago, of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) ban on Libya hosting football matches.
The first CAF game hosted by Libya was played in Benghazi on 5 April, between Al Nasr and Moroccan team Al Jaish Al Malaki. This successfully-held match contributed to FIFA’s decision.
The first FIFA match to be played on home turf will be a World Cup qualifier between Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This will be held in Tripoli on 7 July. Then, on 14 July, there will be another qualifier, this time against Togo, which will be played in Benghazi.
In the qualifiers for the World Cup, which will be held in Brazil 2014, Libya is now second in the table, after Cameroon. The Democratic Republic of Congo is third and Togo is currently last. [/restrict]
