The Senegalese football federation (FSF) on Sunday, January 2, accused Premier League side Watford of preventing forward Ismaila Sarr from playing in the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
Although Sarr is currently out with a knee injury and has not featured Watford since November, the FSF issued a statement claiming that Watford had shown disrespectful, pernicious and discriminatory behavior.
In a press release the Senegalese Football Federation expressed their disappointment claiming that Watford prevented their player from playing at AFCON.
"The Senegalese Football Federation wishes to express by this press release its deep condemnation of the disrespectful, pernicious and discriminatory behaviour of the leaders of Watford who seek by all means to prevent a player from playing with his national team," the statement read.
The tournament is scheduled to get underway from January 9 to February 6 in Cameroon.
Lately there has been a clash between the African Nations and the European clubs who feel the tournament affects their season.
Having to free Africans is a sore point with some managers and Napoli boss Luciano Spalletti labelled the Cup of Nations an invisible monster.
Watford also revealed that Nigerian forward Emmanuel Dennis would not be released because the Nigerian federation did not request him for the tournament in time, with the federation releasing a statement on Friday.
The handling of Emmanuel Dennis has also been controversial, with Nigeria accusing the English club for failing to release him for international duty.
Watford manager Claudio Ranieri earlier this week revealed Nigeria missed the deadline to inform Watford of their intention to select him, giving the club the power to decide whether to release the 24-year-old striker for international duty.
Ranieri insisted Watford are not being disrespectful towards AFCON and that Dennis has accepted the decision to keep him at Vicarage Road.