Malawi FA says door not shut for Saintfiet
The Football Association of Malawi (FAM) says there could still be an opportunity for Belgian coach Tom Saintfiet to work with it after his short stint with the national football team, the Flames, ended when he failed to guide them in beating Nigeria in the World Cup qualifers.
FAM president Walter Nyamilandu-Manda refused to rule out a possibility ofretaining Saintfiet as Flames coach.
“ At this stage we haven’t closed the door on him,” Nyamilandu is quoted by state-broadcaster MBC.
“All I can say is that there’s a lot of bad blood and if we’re to go down that road I think it’ll require a lot of effort to mend fences with the enmity and hostility that is there towards him.
“But am sure there are other options that we can also consider so am not limited at this stage and I don’t think my committee would also want to narrow the search. All we want is a very good tactician.
“Without a doubt tactically we improved after playing Namibia and Kenya and if we’re aiming to qualify for the next tournament we also have to improve on our tactics.”
According to Nyamilandu as reported by MBC, Saintfeit has offered consultancy services to the country’s national football team.
The expatriate, who took charge of the Flames’ last 2014 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria on voluntary basis, has been asked to submit a report to FAM during next month’s executive meeting.
“We’re making steps to convene as an executive committee to review our performance in the just ended World Cup qualifiers and our meeting is next month,” said Nyamilandu.
“We’ve also asked Tom Saintfiet to submit a report. His report will not only look at the national team but Malawian football in general and the set up of the national team.
“If we are going to address the situation we should take a holistic approach and he (Saintfiet) has promised to give us an opinion as a football consultant. We’ll take those reports into consideration,” the FAM boss added.
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