@WORLDLOVERPEACEAisha
For the first time in decades, football in #Libya is just about, well, football : t.co/ytMIMgahsportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/soccer/wi…
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -For the first time in decades, football in Libya is just about, well, football. Gone in the uprising that ousted Moammar Gadhafi is Al-Saadi Gadhafi, who dominated the game and intimidated players during the last years of his father's 42-year rule.
"It's about the ball and kicking the ball without fear and pressure so we can win for our country, for free Libya,'' said Ali al-Aswad, the coach of the national team and a former player for Tripoli club Al Ahli, the late dictator's favorite team.
Football had been in the shadows in Libya since February, when the revolt against Gadhafi's regime erupted in the North African country. Players either left the country to play for clubs in neighboring countries or joined the rebels.
Just days after anti-Gadhafi forces overran Tripoli in late August, assistant coach Abdul Hafid Arbesh went looking for football players around the chaotic capital. He wanted to put together a national team to take them on an epic journey to Egypt for Libya's first international match under the red, black and green revolutionary flag that has replaced the old regime's green banner.
After a bus ride to neighboring Tunisia, a flight to Libya's eastern city of Benghazi and from there another flight to Cairo, Arbesh's squad was in a stadium in the Egyptian capital, facing Mozambique in an African Cup of Nations qualifying match. Libya won 1-0.
