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Even as the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) ponders its replacement for former head coach Tom Saintfiet, the Belgian looks set to return to familiar territory: a second-tier Africa football nation.
The National Football Association of Swaziland (NFAS) has named Saintfiet as one of roughly 15 applicants to coach its national team, which is ranked 99th in the world and has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup or the Africa Cup of Nations.
(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)
Saintfiet, according to the Times of Swaziland, is in a two-way battle with local Harries “Madze” Bulunga for the job. And, considering that the NFAS chose not to renew Bulunga’s term as caretaker coach just two months ago, the departed Warriors coach looks to be a shoe-in.
At Saintfiet’s unveiling in Port of Spain on 7 December 2016, he claimed to have never been fired from a job and also blamed his string of failures across the developing world on a range of excuses from jealous assistant coaches, bitter journalists and ISIS.
And, in his sensational resignation letter, the Belgian made it clear that he attributed his short-lived and unsuccessful stint in Trinidad and Tobago to poor support from TTFA president David John-Williams, indisciplined players and failure to get the right coaching staff.
Saintfiet has had 18 jobs in the last 14 years in nations like Namibia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Malawi, Togo and Bangladesh. Trinidad and Tobago, ranked 78th in the world, was easily his most illustrious posting while his second highest ranked employers, Togo, were 96th when he took over.
Saintfiet was appointed by the TTFA board of directors, which comprises: John-Williams (president), Joanne Salazar, Ewing Davis and Allan Warner (vice-presidents), Samuel Saunders (Central FA), Sherwyn Dyer (Eastern Counties Football Union), Karanjabari Williams (Northern FA), Richard Quan Chan (Southern FA), Anthony Moore (Tobago FA), Joseph Taylor (Trinidad and Tobago Football Referees Association), Sharon O’Brien (Women’s League Football), Wayne Cunningham (Eastern FA) and Dexter Skeene (TT Pro League).
Looking on is new general secretary Justin Latapy-George (far left) and technical director Muhammad Isa.
(Courtesy Wired868)
The TTFA technical committee which put Saintfiet on its shortlist consists of: Skeene (chairman), Dr Alvin Henderson (vice-chairman), Errol Lovell (former national goalkeeper), Jinelle James (ex-national player and current administrator) and Muhammad Isa (technical director).
The Soca Warriors played four times under Saintfiet and lost three of their matches including two Gold Cup play off matches at home against Suriname and Haiti. During his term in Trinidad, the Belgian clashed with the management of Pro League champions, Central FC, axed team captain Kenwyne Jones and fell out with a string of senior national players including Kevin Molino, Joevin Jones and Daneil Cyrus.
Remarkably, Trinidad and Tobago was not Saintfiet’s shortest stint. His only top flight stint in Europe—outside of the Faroe Islands—ended without a single competitive game, as Finnish club RoPS showed him the door during their pre-season while South African club, Free State Stars, parted ways with the coach after just two matches.
Saintfiet sought to impress members of his coaching staff by producing emails which suggested he had an array of professional opportunities in Europe, including France’s second division. Instead, his next destination looks typical of his undistinguished career so far.
(Courtesy Chevaughn Christopher/Wired868)
While Saintfiet said it was “an honour and privilege to work for a beautiful nation like Trinidad and Tobago”, his South African fitness coach Riedoh Berdien appeared to be far less complimentary as he allegedly posted using the Twitter account of Fitness Football Ltd—a South African-based company.
“T&T will never play a WC again. Maybe qualify for the hockey WC [hysterical laughter emoticon].”
The Twitter account further mocked ex-Soca Warriors coach Stephen Hart and Central FC managing director and World Cup 2006 player Brent Sancho. And, bizarrely, claimed that the Trinidad and Tobago media was paid to write positive stories about Hart.
When Wired868 suggested that Berdien was behind the tweets, Fitness Football pretended not to know who that person was. The possible flaw in that defence was that Fitness Football retweeted messages from Berdien about three times a day.
They came, they saw, they blundered… Next stop? Swaziland!
Rough excerpt of Tom Saintfiet interview for Belgium Soccer via Google Translate:
(Courtesy Nicholas Williams/Wired868)
“I had expected a professional framework, but it was thick against… On paper Trinidad also very good players. Unfortunately I have the professional players who are active abroad never seen…
“I organised the end of December a training camp in Nicaragua, but no professional team manager was available. Of the 30 players I had called, there were 17 not show up. The best-known players, such Khaleem Hyland (Westerlo) and Levi Garcia (AZ Alkmaar) were not released by their clubs, but others were not even invited. it is however the task of the league and the team manager. Eventually I just played inexperienced guys with a lot from their own league…
“If the Red Devils miss their fifteen best players, they can still catch it. In a small country like Trinidad & Tobago is extremely difficult. I had to do it with a C-team.
“There were problems with passports, with registrations and even with the game tops. I have as coach never to cooperate with such unprofessional people. That is why I have given my resignation.”
Parting shots from a South African fitness trainer, believed to be Saintfiet’s employee, Riedoh Berdien:
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“[…] The administration should set in place a programme to begin teaching the youngsters the technical aspects of the game. Read more
Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.
@BrianHarry
This stings more:
Bangladesh (3 months, 3 matches, 0 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw)
Togo (1 year, 9 matches, 2 wins, 5 losses, 2 draws)
Malawi (3 months, 5 matches, 1 win, 4 losses, 0 draws)
Yemen (6 months, 11 matches, 0 wins, 11 losses, 0 draws)
Trinidad and Tobago
(1 Month 4 Matches 1 win, 3 losses)
Lost 25 out of 32 matches over a 2 year period.
I really don’t expect him to say anything different.
I stand corrected to any misinformation quoted.
“??Sting mih Saintfest sting mih”? Oh Larrd!??
That man could sweet talk
Stings? Nah Brian ! This is cathartic in a strange kinda way.
At the end of the day DJW has to take the blame for the sad state of TT football. Where is the accountability? Steven Hart was doing great things with our football DESPITE the TTFA !
This stings but can’t disagree with him much. We should our dirty linen over the last 40 days
No surprise.
Rough excerpt of Tom Saintfiet interview for Belgium Soccer via Google Translate
“I had expected a professional framework, but it was thick against… On paper Trinidad also very good players. Unfortunately I have the professional players who are active abroad never seen…
“I organised the end of December a training camp in Nicaragua, but no professional team manager was available. Of the 30 players I had called, there were 17 not show up. The best-known players, such Khaleem Hyland (Westerlo) and Levi Garcia (AZ Alkmaar) were not released by their clubs, but others were not even invited. it is however the task of the league and the team manager. Eventually I just played inexperienced guys with a lot from their own league…
“If the Red Devils miss their fifteen best players, they can still catch it. In a small country like Trinidad & Tobago is extremely difficult. I had to do it with a C-team.
“There were problems with passports, with registrations and even with the game tops. I have as coach never to cooperate with such unprofessional people. That is why I have given my resignation.”
sigh! Can we get anything right? i feel so ashamed of our unprofessional approach…double sigh
Saintfiet on Trinidad and Tobago: “I have never worked with such unprofessional people”
The article is in Dutch, but you can get the gist of it by using Google Translate.
https://www.belgiumsoccer.be/nieuws/lees/2017-01-18/tom-saintfiet-nam-na-iets-meer-dan-een-maand-alweer-ontslag-als-bondscoach-van-trinidad-en-tobago
Lord boy when a man who work with countries where football isn’t even respected and can come and say this about a Country that were in a World Cup only 11 years ago tells you everything .
DJW and his regime are an absolute joke
If I hire a carpenter to train my horse for the Kentucky Derby, and my horse loses, who is to be blamed; the carpenter, the horse or me?
When we truly become professionals at sport admin, political administration, judicial admin, and policing administration/management, perhaps then will we see better results, until then, we’ll continue to below par.
Btw, is Brig Mervyn Dillon concerned about statistics yet? Really wish he would be.
The man eh lie…we could day it but he can’t get real and stop live in denial
This man not worth our time…..moving on ??
Football in T&T don’t have a proper systematic structure it’s SHIT! And hence Shit=shit, face it.
Yeah Mr. Berdien. I am quite sure that under Saintfiet and yourself Swaziland is going to make it to Russia.
All this habala you could put a frog in charge of unfit players that’s the results you’ll get .getting to a w/cup is 100% sacrifice they want the best of both worlds .its either or!
The plight of third world countries…to tolerate insults…
We look for that we have no shame !
This is where DJW has taken our football, shameful
Humming, think about it. We look for that
This is too funny =D =D =D
No! He is damm right! He should’ve even skin his butt, they had no right to hire him in the first place, there are many competent and qualified persons in this country capable of doing a great job!
we like it so. when will we learn. we doing the same thing over an over. if someone local said those things, we marginalized and ostracize them. we are whipping people.
THat’s why i always say stick with ya own, forget these clowns, you really think these people give a damn about our people! We need to build with our own local coaches, win or lose.
That’s hella funny- seeing as our sport teams see everything as a game
I say it’s time to call a halt. This idiot – the fired coach, not the firer – has got far more attention than he deserves. Let’s draw a line through his name, consign him to the dung heap of T&T football and move on.
Our energies are far better spent looking forward to tomorrow’s possible successes than looking back at yesterday’s flops.
Saintfarewell!
Amen he’s gone #goodridance
Get hart back his job
We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Smh!! Nice one Lasana Liburd!
#bonboyage
I think the problem is that we hire these coaches and hope for them to work miracles in a very short space of time. A pig is still a pig no matter who coaching it because the next coach will fail just like all the rest like the WICB the TTFA gotta be dissolved and new body needs to be formed
We need to stop hiring Coaches and fix the football, from youth up.
We need to produce focused, disciplined, hardworking, intelligent players for the Coach to coach!
We already have natural talent
Why do nations especially African nations keep hiring this man? He looks lost, he’s only there for a payday. Still can’t believe Foolish TTFA hired this man.
mama
never see indiscipline team reach know were in football can’t beat Haiti nor Suriname how you going world cup these players are garbage
That’s uncalled for but it isn’t the players fault. Blame the dictator called DJW and his minions.
Ain’t that a reality check
Hard to disagree with his sentiments. Results don’t lie
Results suggest he was not going to help get us to one either.
To be fair to Saintfiet, he was not given the country’s best players to work with. Our talent pool is already small so anything but our best players on the field and we can be beaten by anyone. Saintfiet should’ve been given a chance. One also has to admit that even though Hart brought our football to a certain level, his record for 2016 was abysmal and his downfall was his making with the continuous selection of Kenwyne.
That’s true. But the flip side to that is he dropped them. If he thought they were important, maybe he would have played them.
He was the one who insisted that the other players were good enough.
I agree, you can have the best employee but if you don’t give them the tools to carry out the job it will only lead to one result. This whole thing is a disaster, not looking forward to chapter 2 of this story with much optimism unless the author changes…
The bad part is we actually hired this man
The TTFA is deserving of insults. People in T&T want to operate at a mediocre level and then feel insulted when others refuse to join them. Our football is mediocre. The results say so. Face it and fix it.
If we are mediocre (which I am not disputing), what is Saintfiet?
Moved on.
While we are stuck with a football team that suffered the greatest free fall in the FIFA rankings.
Which was five spots btw…
Since qualifying for a World Cup? We have gone nowhere but down.
That’s actually quite untrue. In 2015, we were ranked higher than we were in 2006.
We dropped badly after 2006, then had a unmistakable revival and then have dipped again…
I agree Brian, hiring a Coach for the Senior Team is a put a plaster approach, now the sore is too big for a plaster.
Fix the football from Youth up.
So the coach will have something to coach.
He didn’t destroy local football. Poor administration and a lack of professionalism has done that long before Saintfiet got here.
I’d certainly never say Saintfiet damaged our football at all. He was a bad joke. But our damage is definitely self-inflicted.
Agreed. You get what you put out there, and for the TTFF it’s unprofessionalism.
Not at all surprised of their ignorance, disrespect and total arrogance to come in somebody country for 35 days and have the audacity to act this way. But we open the door for this fool to collect our money then SPIT in our FACE. TnT self-esteem where art thou?
The silence of the Saintfiet supporters sometimes known as HART bashers is deafening.
And some applauded him all the way and continued to do so, even as he does it.
I guess the closest emoticon we can use for “I told you so” would be a Kermit the frog sipping tea meme.
That’s insulting!!!
Nah! That’s funny as hell Kennisha.?
Allyuh good yes, we could berate the shit out of our players (plain talk) but anyone else tells the truth, be it impolitely or not and we defend the players?
GTFOH
You serious……you never hear about man management?
Jevon Cox you serious? I’m talking about the collective we, the national team supporters (sufferers) have no problem calling it like it is from our perspective. Myself included.
But the second an “outsider” talks the truth we rush to protect our “professionals”
My issue is that last piece of shit, they hired is not a professional and that’s clear from the article. So he and his staff have no right to talk about our players.
Jevon Cox I can agree with your point but they are entitled to their opinion (right or wrong)
We still don’t know the whole truth
Hmm so unprofessional, so disgusting, who does that, I hope the soca warriors gets it right with there next appointment
Its not easy to come from his culture to ours. We have a relaxed and easy going culture. He comes from an environment of work. When you are sick WORK. When it snows WORK. When it rains WORK. when there is a storm WORK.
T&T is shit face it!
He ain’t really wrong in his assessment though. Unprofessional but accurate.
Just imagine a man who said he worked in countries under the threat of ISIS said David John-Williams was too much to handle! Lol
Dat makin’ any sense???
Lasana its two different things completely! The two canny be compared. I have lots of friends in lava Rikke and visit even the violent areas often but I’m still afraid to take certain roles in TT. Are they equated. I guess I’m just fed up of the victim BS.
Brian Harry, I was not seriously suggesting that John-Williams is worse than an organisation that beheads opponents. It was tongue in cheek.
” Take win!”?
Lasana take it from me , we Williams doh play. ..lol
??
lol….he’s clearly a mental case!
Clearly. That stint was one month too long.
The man must be bitter… Yuh know how much sweet wine he miss out on leaving T&T just as Carnival season start…And I ain’t Talkin bout wine tuh drink eh. LMAO ???
Let me just say this here. Lasana your instincts and the instincts of several other members of this group were spot on regarding the charlatan coach and his crew.
We have got to learn to smell a conman. The man was bathing in Eau de Smart Man and some people just couldn’t catch the scent! Lol.
Hahahahaha. The nose is only of value in discerning scents if it is connected to a working brain.
Lol. Touche!
Eau de toilet
Lasana Liburd was he a con man? He found a jackass and he rode it! We are not victims here – frankly this was poor leadership !!!!!!
I’d say it was a bit of both Brian. Actually, I think it was quite a lot of both! Lol.
Lasana Liburd so he came here to con us?? Tell me how did he do that eventually?? By collecting $7000??? Really? He came here realizes the enormity of the task, including the fact that he didn’t have real support and cowardly ran. I don’t see any con taking place . To be accused of conmanship there would have to be a prize. Where is it
So it was really Tom Slightsmell then? Well, on with the hockey boys!?
Is eau de smartman stronger than Baileys Irish cream and flat tyre funk Lasana?
The guy may not have been a great coach or even a good one but calling him a conman is kinda over the top.
Michael Samuel ???
Lyndon, he wasn’t a conman. That was hash. He was just impersonating a top coach. Lol.
If Saintfiet gets the job maybe we should look for a friendly against them ???
But what the foul foot
We might not have learned a lick of football from him, but it appears he learned a the art of picong from us! LOL
Hahaha
The TTFA set us up for embarrassment… As always!