adminThe Belgian coach finally gets his chance to pit his coaching skills against the Warriors when he guides his Flames of Malawi in what should be an explosive Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup quarter-final at Nkoloma Stadium tomorrow.
As fate might have it, the football gods have ensured that Saintfiet’s first competitive game in charge of Malawi should be against Zimbabwe.
His next big game will be against Nigeria, a World Cup qualifier, and he faces a nation where he was hounded out of the country after questions where raised as to how he had been appointed technical director.
The coach, who has been stalked by controversy and has hardly spent a year on his various coaching jobs on the continent, indicated that tomorrow’s clash would be a grudge match which he badly wants the Flames to win.
Saintfiet was bundled out of Zimbabwe following his botched appointment as Warriors coach in 2010, being deported for working without a permit, after just spending two days with the senior national team.
Although the passage of time seems to have healed some of the “wounds’’, there is no doubting he would want to hit back at Zifa by ensuring his Flames win.
Saintfiet said apart from Zimbabwe and Nigeria, he had generally enjoyed working in Africa.
“I have had mostly good times except in Zimbabwe a few years ago when I had problems there and in Nigeria where I was doing well but politics intervened,” said Saintfiet.
“It will not be an emotional time for me to play the Warriors, my wife is from Zimbabwe and I consider myself half Zimbabwean.
“We have the quality to win but even if we don’t get positive results from here, we should be able to get some good lessons that will help us against Nigeria.”
After stints in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Jordan and Tanzania, Saintfiet was last week appointed interim Flames coach on a two-month contract with his main objective being to try and help Malawi beat African champions Nigeria in their decisive World Cup qualifier in September.
But for Saintfiet and Malawi, that ambitious programme starts tomorrow when their pedigree will be given a dry run by a Warriors side that is playing their last competition under departing German coach Klaus Dieter Pagels.
Saintfiet and his skipper, former CAPS United midfielder Joseph Kamwendo, also revealed that they were hoping to use their knowledge of the Zimbabwean game to help the Flames overcome the Warriors.
The coach and his captain, however, noted that “it will not be an easy afternoon’’ for them tomorrow arguing that the strength of the Zimbabwe Premiership meant that the Warriors would always be among the teams to beat at such tournaments like the Cosafa Cup.
Saintfiet reckoned that the Flames, who have drafted in some of their foreign-based players like Liga Muculmana forward Kamwendo for this tournament, have assembled a strong squad that should go beyond the last eight stage.
“I think we have a good strong squad. We are training together for the first time but the atmosphere here in camp is good,” said Saintfiet.
“Zimbabwe is a good team, their league is strong and professional and I have worked there before but we have to win this game and I am convinced we can.
“Malawi has a new coach and that should bring a new dimension and we need luck and the right strategy. With less than a victory we will not be satisfied.
“I was appointed to qualify Malawi for the World Cup in two months but building for that qualification begins now with the Cosafa, I know how it means to win a Cup, I won the
Cecafa with Yanga (Young Africans) last year and I want to do that with Malawi again.”
But even as he prepared to face the Warriors, controversy continued to stalk Saintfiet with Kamwendo indicating that the players were not happy that the Belgian will be paid a US$10 00 bonus if they beat Nigeria while the players had been offered US$85 each as remuneration.
Kamwendo, who has had an on-off romance with the Flames and has previously played for Orlando Pirates in South Africa, also spoke of his respect for the Warriors and both coach and player seemed to have put aside their differences over bonuses during training at Sunset Stadium yesterday.
“We understand it is not going to be easy. I have played in Zimbabwe before and I know there are a lot of quality players there but we need to go out there and win.
“We have just got a new coach and he wants to prove himself too.
“I hope I can also use my experience in Zimbabwe to give tips to my teammates,’’ Kamwendo said.
But shortly before departure for Lusaka, Kamwendo took aim at the Football Association of Malawi for the alleged huge discrepancies in the manner that they want to reward the Flames should they beat the Super Eagles.
According to the BBC, in Blantyre, the Belgian coach is not being paid a being paid a salary and will only get the bonus if the Flames beat Nigeria in September’s winner-takes all World Cup group qualifier.
With Malawi players getting just US$85 for a win Kamwendo described Saintfiet’s proposed bonus of US$10 000 as an insult.
“Why don’t they (Malawi FA) make such offers to players?
“Why should we continue to have our services not appreciated yet they are ready to splash out huge sums of money to one person?
“We’ve been fighting for an increase in game bonuses and allowances for a long time but the FAM have ignored us,” Kamwendo said.
Saintfiet yesterday declined to discuss much about the matter again and chose to focus on the Cosafa tourney.
He had however defended his position during a press conference in Malawi on Tuesday on the eve of their departure for Lusaka.
“In the last weeks I got offers from clubs in South Africa, Kenya, Tunisia and Lebanon,” he said.
“If I had decided last week to go to Lebanon I would have earned four-times that amount in the next two months whether I had won or lost, that was secured money.
“So if I’d come to Malawi just for the bonus I’d be very stupid, I’d have signed somewhere else if money was important to me.
“I’m not here for money and that is the reason why I volunteered – I’m here because I have a dream that Malawi is a country that can go to the World Cup,’’ said Saintfiet, who has the backing of FAM president Walter Nyamilandu said.
Online Reporter