Belgian-born coach Tom Saintfiet dismissed

  1. Posted on Wednesday 8 September 2010 - 11:45
    Walter
    Image of Walter
    Walter Wilson Nana, AfricaNews reporter in Buea, Cameroon
    Namibia have fired national football coach Tom Saintfiet after a 3-1 loss to Gambia in an African Nations Cup qualifier recently.
    Tom Saintfiet of Namibia
    Saintfiet told AFP he received a phone call from Namibia Football Association, NFA, chief John Muinjo Tuesday, and was informed he no longer enjoyed the support of the national body.

    "Muinjo said I had failed him and I am on my own, and I am no longer his man. He asked me to consider whether I should jump or if I prefer to wait to be pushed. This is not about the result in Gambia because I never had a friendly match or any preparations with the team. It is about the link to Zimbabwe.

    “I do not know where I failed when my task is to take Namibia to the 2012 Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. I went to Gambia with 13 players, none of whom had kicked a ball over the past six months, and six foreign-based players joined the team on Friday, the eve of the game,” the 37-year-old coach revealed.

    "My boys were not ready. I told them after the match that was not their fault we lost," added Saintfiet, who threatened to resign when he and the local-based players were stranded in Ghana for two days en route to Banjul.

    Relations between Muinjo and Saintfiet soured recently after the coach publicly attacked the failure of football officials to organize friendly matches ahead of the qualifying competition.

    Muinjo labelled Saintfiet a "cry baby, scared of going into battle and looking for excuses," while the coach argued Namibian football did not have "the right football people at the helm".

    Saintfiet lost only three of 13 matches since taking over the 'Brave Warriors' and his achievements included defeating Zimbabwe 4-2 in a 2010 World Cup qualifier and Democratic Republic of Congo 4-1 in a friendly.

    Arguably his most satisfying result came in South African Indian Ocean city Durban last March with Namibia holding the World Cup hosts 1-1 after leading for much of the game.

    The 'Brave Warriors' next Nations Cup qualifier is away to group favourites Burkina Faso. There are only three teams in the mini-league after the late withdrawal of cash-strapped Mauritania.

    The Belgian, who joined Namibia on a four-year contract in 2008, has been linked with the vacant post of Zimbabwe coach.

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