Senegal Coach, Aliou Cisse says international football – and the Africa Cup of Nations in particular – should never play second fiddle to club commitments and has ‘challenged’ Napoli not to buy African players.
The 46-year-old’s comments come after Napoli owner and President, Aurelio de Laurentiis said the Italian club will avoid signing any more African players unless they agree not to play in the biennial tournament.
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“A football player can play for 12 teams, say, but will only have one national team,” Cisse told BBC Sport Africa.
“Clubs will never be above our flag and our national teams. And every Senegalese who play in Europe, wherever he will be, if he is competent I will call him to defend the colours of the nation.
“I have a lot of respect for (De Laurentiis) but I challenge them to try to not recruit African players.”
The timing of the Nations Cup – traditionally played in January and February – has led to repeated disputes with European clubs forced to release players in the middle of the season.
The Confederation of African Football (CAF), the continent’s governing body, said it was “appalled” by the “irresponsible and unacceptable remarks” made by De Laurentiis, and called on European counterpart UEFA to open a disciplinary investigation against the 73-year-old.
“Are we to assume (De Laurentiis) is going to include similar restrictive conditions to players from South America, Asia and other confederations prohibiting them from playing in their continental competitions?” a CAF statement read.
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