Qualified for the 2022 World Cup, Senegal inherited a rather favorable draw along with host country Qatar, Ecuador and the Netherlands. A third participation largely due to the work of Aliou Cissé who decided to raise without concession the subject of arbitration on the African continent.
Senegal begins to believe in a new brilliant course in a World Cup twenty years exactly after the quarter-final played by the golden generation of 2002. A generation to which belongs Aliou Cissé, ex-captain, who has become a successful coach since his appointment as head of the Teranga Lions in March 2015. In seven years at the head of Senegal, the former PSG player was able to qualify his team for two consecutive World Cups, taking the Lions to the CAN 2019 final lost against the Greens but above all won the first continental title in the history of Senegal last February in Cameroon by taking the best of Egypt during the penalty shootout (0-0, 4-2 on pens).
On the strength of his experience, the Senegalese coach gave a long interview to the French daily Le Monde on Friday to discuss his coaching experience on the African continent. An interview during which Aliou Cissé opens with frankness and without concession the subject of arbitration on the African continent. Invited to speak on what is holding back the progress of football in Africa, Aliou Cissé clearly announces things:Arbitration is a scandal on the African continent. We don’t know how to handle it. Even those who are considered good referees are disappointing.. A reflection that the coach of the Teranga Lions pushes afterwards: “When we talk about refereeing errors, we are told to stop whining, but until we solve this problem, the level of play will always leave something to be desired. Djamel Belmadi [le sélectionneur de l’Algérie] talk about it often, I understand it because I live it, like other coaches. These refereeing problems have consequences on our level of play. he continues in his reflection on this subject at the heart of the debates since the end of the Avvesion play-offs at the World Cup.
Cissé validates the report drawn up by Belmadi
Clearly in agreement with the coach of the Greens, Aliou Cissé is thus perfectly in tune with the observation made by Djamel Belmadi at a press conference on Tuesday evening, recalling the lack of respect of certain referees towards Algeria and its national team. . A fundamental problem whose reasons mentioned by Aliou Cissé are essentially linked to the competence of the arbitration body on the African continent.There are referees who, on a corner, do not know the difference between an individual marking and a defense in zone. A referee is able to err in our favor and in another match, he can whistle against us. They tell me not to talk about it, lest all the referees gang up on Senegal. But who will do it then? he declares in a more general appeal to overcome the visible shortcomings of the arbitration and more generally of the organization of African football.
Pleading for the presence of European referees on the continent, the coach of Senegal hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the next final phase of the World Cup so that the arbitration conditions are more favorable to let his troops lavish his football.”Senegal likes intensity, our adversaries know it and during the matches, they do everything to break it by multiplying the faults. But the referees never sanction and that prevents us from developing our best football. But at the World Cup, you will see something else, the referees will not be the same. thus concludes the 46-year-old coach whose career was often paralleled by that of Djamel Belmadi. There is no doubt that these strong statements will reinforce the similarities and bonds of friendship between two coaches who have become models for the African continent.
DZfoot
