Senegal Football Federation to retain coach Aliou Cisse

by Phumzile Ngcatshe

Friday Jul 06, 2018. 17:00

Despite their failure to reach the knockout stages of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Senegalese Football Federation intends to keep coach Aliou Cisse.

The 42-year-old ex-Lions of Teranga skipper became the youngest manager at the global tournament in Russia as his side narrowly missed out on a Last 16 place.

Following their performance in Russia, SFF vice president Abdoulaye Sow said the team’s failure to reach the World Cup knockout stage does not warrant coach Cisse’s sacking.

Senegal were the first victims of the new FIFA fair play ruling where they failed to go beyond the group stages due to the number of yellow cards accumulated in the matches against Poland, Japan and Colombia.

A similar number of points, goal difference, goals scored and head-to-head could not separate Senegal and the Japanese, leaving the two teams’ disciplinary record to be used to determine the group’s second position.

Moreover, the country’s FA has since written to FIFA urging them to look at the fair play rule and possibly consider changing it.

“There are Senegalese who wanted Senegal to fail at the World Cup. They wanted, for example, huge defeats, humiliation (for the team). But fortunately their wishes were not granted,” Sow told Senegalese radio station RFM.

“The participation of Lions at the world Cup was satisfactory, both from a game and accounting point of view.

“The goal was to reach the second round but the (fair play) ruling did not help Senegal. So, to talk about partying ways with Aliou Cisse is some personal agenda. No one can say Senegal did not play good football.”