Libya national football team

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Libya

Nickname

The Greens

Association

Libyan Football Federation

Confederation

CAF (Africa)

Head coach

Abu Baker Bany

Home stadium

June 11 Stadium

FIFA code

LBY

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

61 (December 2004)

Lowest FIFA ranking

187 (July 1997)

Elo ranking





First kit





Second kit

First international

Egypt 10 - 2 Libya

(Egypt; July 29, 1953)

Biggest win

Libya 21 - 0 Oman

(Iraq; April 1, 1966)

Biggest defeat

Egypt 10 - 2 Libya

(Egypt; July 29, 1953)

African Nations Cup

Appearances

2 (First in 1982)

Best result

Runners-up, 1982

The Libya national football team (Arabic: منتخب ليبيا لكرة القدم‎), is the national team of Libya and is controlled by the Libyan Football Federation. They have never reached the World Cup and have made two appearances at the African Nations Cup, finishing as runners up in 1982, when they hosted the tournament.

1 History
2 African Nations Cup record
- 2.1 See also
3 Notable Players
4 External links

Libya first entered the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in 1970. Their early attempts failed, but during the 1980s the national side strengthened. The country's geopolitical position, however, affected the football team, who had to withdraw from qualifying for the 1982 and 1990 World Cups.

Libya came closest to qualifying for the world cup in 1986. They came to within a game of reaching the finals in Mexico. After winning their match against Sudan in their first game, the Libyans beat Ghana in the next round before taking on Morocco for a place at the finals. Morocco won the first game 3-0 and went through, even though Libya won the return leg 1-0.

After not entering the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cup competition, Libya came back in the qualifying competition for Korea/Japan. The Libyans advanced to the second round at the expense of Mali, who were beaten 4-3 on aggregate.

In the group stage, Libya managed only one draw in eight games, however. The qualifying tournament did put Libya's captain Al-Saadi Qadhafi (son of Muammar al-Gaddafi) on the football map and he received a contract with former Serie A Italian club Perugia shortly afterwards.

In the qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, a 9-0 two-legged victory against São Tome and Principe put the Libyans through to the group stage. However, during these two games, the country's most famous player, Al-Saadi Gaddafi, was banned when he failed a drug test.

A difficult group followed containing Egypt, Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire, the eventual group winners and qualifiers for the World Cup.

1986 FIFA World Cup (qualification CAF) (The closest Libya came to qualifying for the world cup).

The biggest football tournament to be held in Libya was the 1982 African Cup of Nations. Libya qualified automatically as hosts and were put in a rather strong group alongside Ghana, Cameroon and Tunisia. The opening match of the tournament which saw the hosts take on Ghana in Tripoli was a closely contested match. Ghana managed to score a late goal in the 89th minute forcing a 2-2 draw. A 2-0 win over Tunisia and a goalless draw against Cameroon saw Libya topping the group.

In the semi-finals, Libya came from behind to beat Zambia 2-1 and set up another match with Ghana, this time in the final on March 19. Ghana scored first in the 35th minute, but Libya equalised in the 70th. This was followed by a tense period of extra time in which no goals were scored. In a long penalty shootout, Ghana came out triumphant 7-6.

Libya's second African Cup of Nations saw a return to the higher levels of the international footballing scene at the 2006 African Cup of Nations finals in Egypt. They qualified for the competition after a goalless draw with Sudan in their ninth qualifying match.

Libya were drawn in Group A with Egypt (the hosts), 2006 World Cup-qualifiers Côte d'Ivoire and Morocco. Libya's players were unable to compete with these teams, and came away with just one point from their final match against Morocco. They played the first match of the month-long tournament, on 20 January 2006 against eventual champions Egypt, where they lost 3-0 and had Uruguyan-born keeper Luis Agustine sent off. The goalscorers for Egypt were Mido (17'), Mohammed Abu Treika (22')and Ahmed Hassan (78'). Egypt's first came from a corner and sloppy Libyan defending resulted in Mido heading home. Egypt's second was no fault of the Libyans. they gave away a seemingly unharmful free-kick 30 yards out. Mohammed Abo Treika stepped up and dispatched the free-kick with deadly precision for Egypt's second goalin just five minutes. Egypt continued to dominate, but Libya did fight back; good work by Jehad Muntasser, Libya's best player, resulted in a near-post header missed by striker Nader Kara. Libya looked likely to score, but on 77 minutes, a penalty given away by Luis Agostine, resulting in a red card and some tears for the Uruguyan-born custodian. Mahmoud Abu Kheres was brought on, and he heroically saved captain Ahmed Hassan's spot-kick. However, the ball cruelly found it's way back to Hassan, who scored the rebound fairly easily to kill the game off. Despite this, ['The Greens'] managed to rouse themselves and they managed to run the [Ivory Coast] close in their second group game, against Egypt's eventual opposition in the final, [Ivory Coast]. The Elephants gave a performance of low quality, and Libya should have won, but they failed to create goals out of their chances. Didier Drogba gave the Ivory Coast a 1-0 led on 10 minutes. Determined not to be touted the group's whipping boys, the Greens fought back, and got a free-kick on 41 minutes. It was whipped in by Muntasser, and headed home by central midfielder, Abdesalam Ezwae. Cue madness from the Libyan fans. Libya and the Ivory Coast had many more chances, and either team could have won the match, but with 16 minutes remaining,a good Ivorian move ended in Abu Kheres picking the ball out of his net for the 3rd time this tournament, Gnegneri 'Yaya' Toure (brother of Arsenal's Kolo) having scored. They also played exceptionally well against their North-African counterparts and rivals Morocco. Nader Kara was twice flagged offside when in a clear goalscoring position. Replays proved that on both occasions, Kara was at least a yard onside. Despite this travesty, Libya still played Morocco off the park, despite Morocco almost taking the lead twice through Mustapha Hadji. The standindgs were as follows:

Position Team P W D L GF GA GD Pts. 1st Egypt 3 2 1 0 6 4 +2 7 2nd Ivory Coast 3 2 0 1 4 4 0 6 3rd Morocco 3 0 2 1 0 1 -1 2 4th Libya 3 0 1 2 1 5 -4

1==World Cup record==

1930 to 1962 - Did not enter
1966 - Withdrew
1970 - Did not qualify
1974 - Did not enter
1978 - Did not qualify
1982 - Withdrew during qualifying
1986 - Did not qualify
1990 - Withdrew during qualifying
1994 - Disqualified due to UN sanctions
1998 - Did not enter
2002 - Did not qualify
2006 - Did not qualify

1957 to 1965 - Did not enter
1968 - Did not qualify
1970 - Did not enter
1972 - Did not qualify
1974 - Withdrew
1976 to 1980 - Did not qualify
1982 - Runners-up
1984 - Did not qualify
1986 - Did not qualify
1988 - Withdrew
1990 - Withdrew
1992 to 1998 - Did not enter
2000 to 2004 - Did not qualify
2006 - Round 1
2008
2010
2012
2014 -Qualified As Hosts.

2008 African Cup of Nations (qualification) Group 10.

	Libya squad - 2006 African Cup of Nations Round One
1 Abbud \| 2 Osman \| 3 Shushan \| 4 Dawood \| 5 Shibani \| 6 Ramly \| 7 Muntasser \| 8 Hussein \| 9 Zuway \| 10 Saad Osman \| 11 El Masli \| 12 Agustini \| 13 Blal \| 14 C. El Taib \| 15 Kara \| 16 Al Tarhoni \| 17 Shafter \| 18 Al Hamadi \| 19 Kames \| 20 Al Rewani \| 21 Ghazalla \| 22 Belkher \| 23 Slil \| Coach: Bany