FIFA 2026 | Why Senegal contingent members are stuck in the US five days after elimination?

Senegal’s FIFA World Cup 2026 ended in heartbreak on Wednesday (Jul 1), as they were beaten 3-2 by Belgium in extra time in the round of 32, despite leading 2-0 with just four minutes left on the clock. Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans struck late to force extra time, before Tielemans converted a 124th-minute penalty to send Belgium through. Five days on, the pain hasn’t ended for Senegal’s travelling party. While the players and coaching staff finally flew out of Seattle on Sunday (Jul 5), federation officials and support staff remain stuck in the US with no clarity on when they’ll get home.

The plan was for a government-chartered flight to take the whole squad home on Friday (Jul 3), but sources within the camp told ESPN that the delegation was informed at the last minute, just as they were heading to the airport, that the plane hadn’t turned up. No official explanation has been given, but insiders believe President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s cabinet reshuffle, underway since June, has left a gap in the administration that handled the arrangements.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Live on Zee5 Photograph: (WION)

There’s also a theory that nobody back home expected Senegal to be knocked out this early. After all, they’d hammered Iraq 5-0 in their final group game to progress, so travel plans for a swift exit were simply never made. It was left to the Senegalese Football Federation to scramble and find commercial tickets, which is how the players eventually made it out. Things got messy on the ground too, with some non-playing staff reportedly shifted to a three-star hotel after their original rooms ran out beyond the booked dates. One member of the delegation admitted to feeling “abandoned” by the country’s authorities.

The Senegal Federation says a special charter arranged by the Ministry of Youth and Sports is set to land in Dakar on Tuesday (Jul 7) at 9:15 a.m., though flight trackers are yet to show any such flight listed. The stranded staff remain hopeful that they’ll finally get a route home by Tuesday at the earliest, bringing an end to a chaotic exit from a World Cup campaign that was already troubled from the start.

A statement by Senegal Football Federation, however, thanked the authorities “who spared no effort in facilitating the procedures to ensure the delegation’s return as quickly as possible.”