'Potential breaches' - Senegal face FIFA probe over World Cup rules ahead of last-16 England match

Senegal are under investigation from the FIFA Disciplinary Committee over “potential breaches” ahead of their World Cup round-of-16 match against England.

Ismaila Sarr scored from the spot-kick in the first half before Moises Caicedo pulled back a second-half equaliser for Ecuador in their Group A clash.

However, Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly cancelled out Caicedo’s equaliser three minutes later to ensure the African champions progressed to the knockout stages.

Every team participating in the World Cup must take part in a ‘Matchday -1 Press Conference’ at least one day before their matches.

As part of the mandatory requirement, the team must have their head coach and a player from their squad at one of the two press conference rooms at the World Cup’s media centre.

Senegal manager Cisse attended a press conference with Chelsea star Koulibaly ahead of their clash with World Cup hosts Qatar.

It is believed that a Senegal player was not present for the press conference ahead of the Ecuador match, with Cisse speaking ‘by himself for roughly 40 minutes.’

FIFA on Wednesday confirmed that it had “opened proceedings” against the Senegalese FA and the breaches related to the aforementioned press conference.

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“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has opened proceedings against the Senegalese Football Federation due to the potential breaches of article 44 of the Regulations for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, article 2.7.2 of the Media and Marketing Regulations and article 8.5.3 of the Team Handbook,” FIFA said in a statement.

“The potential breaches relate to the mandatory press conference that took place on 28 November ahead of the Ecuador v Senegal FIFA World Cup match.”

And it now seems likely that the Senegalese FA will face similar repercussions to Germany after FIFA issued a fine for the aforementioned offence.