By David Owen
October 17 – Tensions are reported between Senegalese players and the national federation over appearance money and travel conditions for the recent friendly against Brazil. According to France Football, citing in turn Senegalese media, the players turned down an appearance payment of €1,000, compared with the usual €1,150.
“Our bonuses are very much inferior to those made by many other African teams,” one unnamed player is quoted as saying. “And now we are being offered an amount below the sum fixed for several years. We don’t play for the team for the money, but you must be reasonable.”
The article quotes a response by Augustin Senghor, president of the Senegalese Football Federation, who acknowledged there have been discussions. “We have decided that for November’s matches against Guinea-Bissau and Eswatini (Swaziland) the players will get €1,000 extra on top of the €1,150,” he said.
Regarding travel, the player said team-mates and staff had flown economy class between Paris and Singapore, where the Brazil match took place, and claimed the flight took 26 hours in total. “Often, we must pay the cost of an upgrade ourselves on long-haul flights,” he added.
The match on October 10 ended as a 1-1 draw, with Bristol City’s Famara Diedhiou equalising for Senegal from the spot after Sadio Mané had been fouled, following Roberto Firmino’s chipped opener. The game saw Neymar become the seventh man to win 100 caps for the Seleção.
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