Just a preliminary agreement: did Senegal rush into announcing Vieira’s appointment?

It looked as though the Senegalese Football Federation had finally settled on its new coach, announcing the appointment of Frenchman Patrick Vieira to lead the “Lions of Teranga”. Then statements from within the federation reopened the file, revealing that the agreement between the two parties had not yet reached its final stage.

Bakary Cissé, a member of the executive committee of the Senegalese Football Federation, told “RFM” radio that the agreement with Vieira remains at a preliminary stage. Negotiations over the legal aspects of the contract have not yet concluded, he confirmed.

“We have a preliminary agreement with Patrick Vieira,” Cissé said, before adding: “We are continuing negotiations regarding the legal terms.”

A preliminary agreement, not a final signing

The committee member’s words point to an awkward truth. The Senegalese federation announced Vieira as the national team’s new coach before all the legal details of the contract had been settled.

Should this account prove accurate, the federation jumped the gun, announcing the deal before negotiations were done. That could leave the institution in an embarrassing position, especially as a “preliminary agreement” is not the same as an official, final signing.

Until the contractual clauses are fully ratified, a change in position remains theoretically possible, even if the two parties have agreed on the broad lines of the deal.

Vieira’s silence raises questions

Vieira’s own position only deepens the ambiguity. Since the federation’s announcement, the French coach has issued no direct word about his appointment as Senegal boss.

During his time in the country, he posted several photos from his trip, including shots of his family visiting the Bandia reserve, and captioned one Instagram post with the phrase “Lions of Teranga”.

Here is the twist: the photos showed real lions on a safari, not the Senegal stars led by Sadio Mané. That left the phrase open to more than one interpretation and fell well short of an official announcement.

Vieira then visited Cape Verde, the country his grandfather hails from, yet he has still revealed nothing to confirm his contract with the Senegalese federation is done.

That silence chimes with Bakary Cissé’s account, which suggests the agreement has yet to be closed for good.

Negotiations that were not easy

Reaching an agreement with Vieira proved no simple task. The talks hit several sticking points before arriving at the preliminary stage.

The French coach had initially wanted a salary close to 100,000 euros a month. He eventually settled for around 35 million African francs a month, a little over half of his original demand.

Vieira’s appointment and the makeup of his backroom staff also stirred debate within the federation. Abdoulaye Fall wanted to grant him a wide margin of independence, only to run into reservations from the executive committee.

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