Football: Aliou Cissé is no longer Senegal coach

Aged 48, Cissé spent more than nine years at the head of the Téranga Lions and won the African Cup of Nations with them in 2022.

In a press release, the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) specifies having received a letter from the Minister of Sports, Khady Diéne Gaye, disapproving the renewal of Aliou Cissé, whose contract had expired on August 31.

The minister cites Aliou Cissé’s failure to achieve the objectives assigned to him, winning the last CAN and reaching the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup, as well as the regression of the national team in the Fifa ranking, says the minister. FSF.

The minister in office since April also argues “the risk of disaffection between our national team and the Senegalese,” says the FSF.

Aliou Cissé, who arrived at the head of the selection in 2015, offered Senegal the first CAN in its history in 2022, after reaching the final of the continental competition in 2019. He qualified the Lions for the last two Cups of the world, in 2018 in Russia and in 2022 in Qatar, after several years of non-participation.

But he was criticized since the early elimination in the round of 16 at the last CAN in Ivory Coast, on penalties against the host country.

These criticisms intensified on social networks after the draw (1-1) against Burkina Faso in September, in qualifying for CAN-2025.

An “interim staff” should be put in place for the remainder of the CAN-2025 qualifications, the press release said.

The Federation will publish the list of players selected for the third and fourth day matches against Malawi on Friday.